ANN ARBOR, MI (December 13, 2004) Flint Ink North America has announced a price increase of 6% for Commercial ink products, effective January 1, 2005. The increase comes in response to the rising costs of raw materials, transportation, and energy, integral to the manufacture of printing inks. “Emerging markets throughout the world have taxed the supply chain and caused scarcity of many raw materials,” says Doug Labertew, vice president, general manager, Sheetfed Division, Flint Ink North America. “While we have leveraged our global purchasing power, vertical integration, and intense productivity improvement programs to protect our customers from price increases for several years, the extreme increases in costs of raw materials make this price increase necessary.” Labertew notes that although some raw materials are on allocation, Flint Ink has established a secure supply chain so there is no reason to expect interruption of supply. He adds, however, that all specialty chemical materials are being traded at higher costs and “there is no relief in sight." Spiraling energy and petroleum costs, coupled with limited chemical processing capacity and the surge in global demand, have caused an unprecedented rise in costs for printing inks. “Global economic influences have permanently changed the landscape of the specialty and commodity chemical industries,” Labertew concludes.