Japan's printing ink pigment industry began to focus on environmental protection

The business club on October 29 was affected by the slowdown in economic growth and increasingly stringent environmental regulations. Japan's pigment industry continued to decline in 2007 and 2008, and both production and sales declined. In addition, the high energy prices and the ever-changing Chinese market have also put the Japanese paint industry, which is increasingly dependent on China, facing a severe test.

The organic pigment consumer market is roughly divided into printing inks (60%), plastics (20%) and coatings (20%). Among them, the content of the organic pigment in the coating is 5%, the content in the plastic is 1%, and the content in the printing ink is 15% to 20%. The application requirements of printing inks have a greater influence on organic pigments than plastics and coatings.

In 2007, Japan's printing ink production declined by 1.4% year-on-year to 448,000 tons. This is mainly due to the sluggish domestic economy in Japan, which reduces the market demand for printing inks. As some consumers accepted the increase in product prices, sales of printing inks fell less than production.

The three primary colors yellow, red, blue and black are still the four basic process colors used for printing. Organic pigments are commonly used to prepare three primary color pigments because of their transparency, clarity, and coloring power. The most commonly used organic pigments are disazo pigments (yellow), soluble azo pigments (red) and phthalocyanine blue pigments (blue). Carbon black is used in black pigments, while basic blue and phthalocyanine blue are also used as complementary colors. In addition, some neutral colors such as orange, green, and purple pigments also use disazo pigments, phthalocyanine blue pigments, and dioxazine pigments, respectively.

Environmental protection and safety factors are very important in the production of printing inks because printing inks are often in direct contact with human skin. Currently, pigments containing heavy metals such as chrome yellow and cadmium yellow have been banned from being produced and sold in Japan. New trends have emerged in the development of environmentally-friendly products. The demand for non-solvent and low-solvent gravure inks is increasing with the use of vegetable oils such as soybean oil instead of mineral oils in the production of flat-panel inks. However, in 2007, soybean oil prices soared due to the continuous expansion of bioethanol production. It brought new pressure on the operating profit of the printing ink business.