Parsippany, N.J. – Sun Chemical will increase the prices of all ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) inks in Europe by 4-6 percent, effective July 1, 2018.

As announced previously, governmental initiatives and regulations geared toward environmental protection have caused many suppliers of photoinitiators to either cease or reduce production for limited periods of time. Additionally, as outlined by the European Printing Ink Association, photoinitiator supply has also been impacted by major incidents, including a factory fire, unforeseeable events, low stocks, unplanned maintenance and production outages. In addition to the photoinitiators, increases in key oligomers and monomers have impacted pricing for all energy cure systems.

“While Sun Chemical is working hard to safeguard supply and mitigate the shortage of photoinitiators by qualifying new grades and developing new sources, the high levels of raw material costs are unprecedented and have been passed on to ink manufacturers,” said Felipe Mellado, Chief Marketing Officer and Board Member, Sun Chemical. “It has been difficult to offset the rising raw material costs on our energy curable inks and unfortunately this has forced us to pass some of these costs on to our customers.”