Increasingly Digital and Organic: Ceresana Presents New Market Study on Printing Inks

KONSTANZ, Germany - Oct. 4, 2024 - PRLog -- Print is dead? Long live print! "The radical upheaval in the printing industry is far from over," emphasizes Oliver Kutsch, CEO of Ceresana: "Conventional advertising brochures, catalogs, and publication printing are continuing to lose importance, while the market for printed books is stabilizing somewhat for the time being. In contrast, demand for packaging, labels, and other print products is increasing." The latest, already fifth edition of the Ceresana study on the global market for printing inks forecasts that the total demand for printing inks will grow by an average of 1.0% annually until 2033.

Packaging Increases Demand for Printing Inks

For the first time, the current market report details the demand for printing inks split by application area for each printing process such as offset, flexo, and inkjet. The information is presented in clearly structured tables. The booming online trade with its packaging made of flexible plastics and corrugated cardboard is particularly responsible for the growth of the printing ink market. In China, for example, flexible plastic bags are often used as packaging for shipments. In addition to stand-up pouches, growing segments currently include shrink labels, aseptic packaging, beverage packaging, and specially coated packaging paper. The printing industry is benefiting from ever stricter labeling requirements. However, the packaging market is very heterogeneous.

Trend Towards Digital Printing and Organic Printing Inks

Digital printing processes are becoming competitive in more and more areas, starting with short print runs such as packaging and label printing, photo books, and other job printing. UV inkjet printing enables direct printing of 3D objects, for example. Accordingly, demand for inkjet printing inks and laser toners continues to rise noticeably. Ceresana's current market overview provides specific figures on the individual printing ink types, for example on the demand for inkjet printing inks in the label printing segment, which is expected to grow by more than 10% per year worldwide. The use of energy-saving and more environmentally friendly printing processes is increasing significantly. Eco-friendly printing inks do not release any toxic heavy metals. Organic color pigments do not yet offer a convincing alternative to mineral oil products. However, the binding agents and solvents used in organic printing inks are already based on vegetable oils, i.e. renewable raw materials. A reduced mineral oil content in printing inks is not only beneficial for recycling or composting paper packaging.

Further information on the new 5th edition of the market study "Printing Inks – World": https://ceresana.com/en/produkt/printing-inks-market-repo...