The gap between China's ink application and the world advanced level

Over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, China's printing industry has made considerable progress. The printing technology has been greatly improved and the quality of printing has improved significantly. In addition to benefiting from the improvement in the level of printing technology and equipment, the development of printed materials has also played a catalytic role.

Printing ink consumption forecast

In general, the consumption of printing ink is closely related to the consumption of printing materials. At present, the printing substrates are still mainly paper and paperboard, and there are many materials such as plastics, metals, glass, and fabrics. The use of plastic films for packaging will continue to increase.

From the consumption of paper and paperboard to see the amount of ink

Paper and paperboard are the most commonly used substrates for printing. Due to the great progress of the printing industry, the consumption of paper and paperboard in China has been ranked second in the world since 1992, second only to the United States. In response to this, in 2001 and 2002, China’s ink consumption was 22 million tons and 241,100 tons respectively, which was a year-on-year increase of 10.05%. From a macroscopic point of view, the average ink consumption of paper and board in China was 5.97kg/t and 5.59kg/t in 2001 and 2002 respectively, and the average of two years was 5.77kg/t. Calculated according to the population of 1.3 billion, by the end of the “Tenth Five-Year Plan”, the total consumption of paper and paperboard in China will reach 44.2 million to 49.4 million tons, and by then there should be 255,000 to 285,000 tons of ink matching.

From the growth of printing companies to see the amount of ink

The total industrial output value of China's printing enterprises is expected to grow at an average rate of no less than 7.7% of the national economy. Based on this base figure, by the end of 2005, the demand for ink consumption in the printing industry will reach 302,400 tons per year. By the end of 2005, the total number of printing enterprises in the country will reach about 106,000, with a growth rate of 17.75%, and ink consumption will reach about 285,000 tons.
Ink's international market status

In 2002, China's imported ink market was mainly concentrated in Asia, accounting for 75.15% followed by Europe, accounting for 17.37%; North America can not be ignored: In 2002, imports of ink from North America amounted to 0.143 million tons, accounting for 4.35% of China's total ink imports that year Among them, 0.124 million tons were imported from the United States, accounting for 3.91%. In 2002, the international market for China's export ink was mainly in Asia, accounting for 85.78%, followed by Africa, accounting for 5.31%, and North America accounted for 3.78%.

The quality level of domestic ink has been recognized internationally, and it has also promoted the development of the ink industry. In 2002, China exported 1311 tons of printing ink to developed countries such as Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, which accounted for 14.96% of China's total printing ink exports in the year, and accounted for 13.75% of China's total ink exports that year and earned foreign exchange of 11.09 million US dollars. At that time, China's printing ink exports accounted for 27.31% of total foreign exchange, which accounted for 23.77% of China's total ink export earnings in the same year.

Although the current quality and product quality of domestic inks have greatly improved and the variety has also increased, there is still a big gap compared with the international advanced level. For example, the average unit price of other printing inks exported to Japan in 2002 was 5,525.92 U.S. dollars per ton, while the average unit price of other printing ink products imported from Japan actually reached 8569.01 U.S. dollars per ton, and the average unit price was 1.55 times that of exports. That is, the import was higher than the export of 3043.09 US dollars / ton. This shows that China's ink product quality yet to be further improved.

In terms of the ink market development forecast, by the end of 2005, the development target of China's ink market was to reach an annual average consumption of 300,000 tons of ink, including:

1 Lithographic printing ink still occupies the dominant position in the market, and the market demand has steadily increased. The market share is generally about 50%. With the rapid development of China’s newspaper industry, the growth rate of web offset printing inks for news publication and printing will be higher.

2 The demand for the gravure printing ink market is stable. Given the rapid rise of food and other plastic packaging, the demand for plastic printing inks, food packaging printing inks, aromatic-free inks, and water-based inks will increase.

3 The market demand for letterpress inks will drop significantly. Nowadays, there are very few lead edition stamps. Toppan printing has been replaced by plastic stamping and flexo printing. Among them, the proportion of flexo printing inks has increased significantly with the rapid development of packaging printing.

4 The demand for screen printing inks is on the rise. The development of the outdoor advertising industry will increase the demand for light-resistant screen printing inks, and the amount of screen printing inks for materials such as glass, plastics, and metals will also increase.

5 Due to the rapid development of various high-end packaging printing, bill printing, document printing, securities printing and banknote printing, the market demand for special anti-counterfeit inks and special inks is still on the rise from the overall perspective. Anti-counterfeiting inks, UV inks, The demand for fluorescent inks, pearl inks, and jet inks will increase substantially.

By the end of 2005, the annual consumption of ink in China will reach 300,000 tons, but the per capita consumption of ink is still less than 1/24 of the world's top 3 average level, and the per capita consumption of printed materials is still less than 1/20 of that of developed countries, paper and cardboard. The per capita consumption is still less than 1/13 of that of the United States. This shows that China's ink market has great potential for development. In the new situation in which China has joined the WTO and gradually integrates into global economic integration, in addition to increasing output, China's ink industry should pay attention to adjusting the industrial structure, increase research and development efforts, increase product technology content, increase variety, improve grades, and improve quality. The stability and uniformity of the product make it adaptable to the development needs of today's multi-color, high-speed, fast-drying, non-polluting and low-consumption modern printing. Improve the overall level of China's ink, and enhance domestic ink in the international market, the ability to drive the rapid development of the ink industry.