The Raw Material Report

For the past few years, raw material costs and supply for printing inks have been, in a word, volatile. There were skyrocketing crude oil prices, followed by shortages. Pigment prices, which had remained relatively stable, were impacted by the elimination of the value addded tax and a new emphasis on environmental issues in China. Then the global recession hit, and hit hard. Meanwhile, the printing industry haas come under heavy pressure from a varety of outside sources, not the least of which ...