Sun Chemical (Parsippany, NJ) will raise prices in North America, effective April 1, 2010, by:

4% for packaging liquid inks with a specific increase of $0.40/lb. on bronze metallic inks;

6% for energy curable inks; and

$0.75/lb. for commercial sheetfed blended colors.

The company cites the impact of recent events in the global supply chain, including supply base consolidation and capacity curtailment, significant decline in refinery margins, and rationalized operating rates to diminish demand. The combination of these factors has led to elevated fixed costs on raw material goods.
 
“Due to the consolidation of raw material suppliers, we now have fewer industry supply options to choose from,” says Tony Renzi, vice president, product management Liquid Inks, North American Inks, Sun Chemical. “Until we see an improvement in demand or a supply correction is made in the raw materials industry, we will continue to face a higher cost in manufacturing inks.
 
“At Sun Chemical, we continue to work on controlling our own costs closely with our supply chain partners, to improve our internal operations and to develop new value oriented products that can help customers grow their business, and we will continue to invest in those areas that provide our customers with innovative products and services allowing them to be more competitive and present the best value propositions in the market,” he adds.