Ink products come in an endless array of choices, from lithographic inks to ink jet inks and toners. While the past few years have presented challenges for the print inks/toners market and the print end-use market, the next five years have a fair outlook. Most of the growth will occur in the nontraditional sector, including ink-jet inks and toner. Traditional processes, such as letterpress, will see declines in the next five years as newer and better technologies take hold.
According to a soon-to-be-released report from Business Communications Company, Inc. Printing Ink and Toner Industry, the entire U.S. printing industry reached sales of $168.8 billion in 2003 and is expected to increase to $197.6 by 2008 with an AAGR of 3.2%. Likewise, the global market for the printing industry will see similar growth patterns with large market opportunities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The worldwide printing industry was valued at $620.1 billion in 2000 and $644.4 billion in 2003 and is forecast to increase to $804.6 billion by 2008 with a corresponding AAGR of 4.5%.
Both the U.S. and worldwide printing industries are extremely large and includes a vast amount of materials and products that are produced for both businesses and the general consumer. Printing products encompass every part of our daily lives from newspapers, to plastic wrappers to checks.
Printing inks are produced in direct correlation to the amount of printed material and products that are produced. Printing inks and toners cover a wide variety of products. These product types are dependent on the type of process used and include product offerings that continually offer better color choice, higher performance, and more environmentally benign qualities. Printing ink manufacturers must contend with offering printing customers higher quality products while controlling costs. Printing ink producers will feel the pressure of rising costs of raw materials over the next five years. Raw materials used in printing inks and toners has increased from $1.86 billion in 2000 to an anticipated $2.34 billion in 2003 and $3.17 billion in 2008 with a 6.3% AAGR. Colorants, perhaps the most expensive and volatile commodity in the production of printing inks, had sales of $998 million in 2000 with increases to $1.41 billion in 2003 and $2.15 billion by 2008 with an AAGR of 8.85%.
The entire industry of printing ink and toner, based on U.S. production, reached sales of $6.4 billion in 2003. The industry will reach sales of $8.7 billion by 2008, which corresponds to an AAGR of 6.2% for the five-year period. Specific product categories will see better growth than others. The dominant ink product, lithographic ink, achieved sales of $1.75 billion in 2003, and is forecast to rise to $1.82 billion in 2008, which represents a small 0.9% AAGR. This stagnant product category will give way to newer processes, such as inkjet. Ink-jet inks will see tremendous growth from sales of only $221 million in 2000 to doubled sales of $460 million in 2003. This figure is predicted to a climb to $1.65 billion in sales by 2008, with an AAGR of 29.1%.
The worldwide printing ink and toner market will see similar growth. U.S. companies will see competition from both Asia and Western European. U.S. companies must also contend with imports of printing products that either enhance product performance or are simply cheaper. Worldwide printing ink and toner production reached $20.3 billion in 2000 with expected growth to $22.4 in 2003 jumping to $31.1 billion in 2008 with an overall AAGR of 6.8%.
World and U.S. Representative Printing and Inks Product Market, through 2008 ($ Billions)
| |
2000 |
2003 |
2008 |
AAGR %
2003-2008 |
| U.S. printing industry |
165.47 |
168.83 |
197.59 |
3.2 |
| Worldwide printing industry |
620.10 |
644.40 |
804.56 |
4.5 |
| U.S. ink and toner |
5.77 |
6.44 |
8.69 |
6.2 |
| Worldwide ink and toner |
20.27 |
22.37 |
31.13 |
6.8 |
Source: BCC, Inc.
