The euro drops, ink prices rise
During 2014 the US dollar, the reference currency for international trade, gained more than 15% in value over the euro, causing the increase of almost all raw materials, while the fall in the cost of oil has only partially offset the currency change disadvantages.
For this reason - communicates the European association of printing inks manufacturers EuPIA, implying a season of price increases - in the context of persistent upward trends of the majority of their costs, compensation for the squeeze on margins is becoming increasingly difficult for the European ink manufacturers.
EuPIA describes these dynamics, noting that normally the formulations of printing inks are only indirectly related to the cost of oil, and are directly related to the (rising) prices of basic raw materials such as gum rosin and nitrocellulose, vegetable oils and pigments. Other relevant factors, that weigh on the ink manufacturers, are environmental costs, the rising labor costs in China and India and the already mentioned run of exchange rates, as well as the lack of some elements, such as titanium dioxide.