Trends in the Development of UV Inks

　　Stringent environmental regulations are driving transformation in the ink market.

　　As one of the most ubiquitous yet often overlooked elements of daily life, packaging is undergoing a profound transformation. Today, flexible packaging, with a market size of 600 billion, accounts for 15% of the entire packaging industry.

　　In China, the soft‑packaging market reached RMB 100 billion in 2017, accounting for 24% of the entire packaging industry. Among ink products used for packaging printing—defined as those with annual sales exceeding RMB 20 million—the output totaled 742,000 tonnes, with ink consumption at 732,000 tonnes. The sector’s total industrial output value was approximately RMB 17.1 billion, and its sales revenue stood at RMB 17.88 billion.

　　Among the ink technologies currently in use, gravure inks account for the largest share and are primarily employed in flexible packaging printing, followed by offset inks, which are mainly used for printing books and magazines. Ink-based printing generates substantial amounts of VOCs (volatile organic compounds); in 2017, the packaging printing industry’s total VOC emissions were approximately 1 to 2 million tons, with plastic flexographic packaging accounting for an estimated 800,000 to 1.2 million tons.

　　In the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan” issued on September 12, 2013, the packaging and printing industry was designated by the state as a key sector for reducing VOC emissions. The Work Plan for Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Control during the 13th Five-Year Plan period mandates that total emissions from the packaging and printing industry be cut by more than 30%, with reductions of over 50% in priority regions.

　　Although VOCs are not subject to the Environmental Protection Tax under the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China, which came into effect on January 1, 2018, the central government has adopted a policy of gradually incorporating pollutants into the tax base. Consequently, the ink market will urgently require a transformation in the foreseeable future.

　　 UV Ink: A new, high-performance, environmentally friendly ink.

　　UV ink is a highly important application within the family of radiation-curable materials. Its key characteristic is that, under irradiation with ultraviolet light of a specific wavelength and energy, the photoinitiator in the UV ink reacts with photosensitive oligomers and photosensitive diluent monomers, triggering an instantaneous crosslinking reaction that transforms the material from a liquid to a solid, forming a network‑like dried film.

　　UV inks, with their high efficiency, broad applicability, cost-effectiveness, energy savings, and environmental friendliness, are rapidly replacing traditional solvent-based inks. In recent years, China’s UV ink market has maintained a growth rate of over 10%; however, in 2015, production totaled only 48,300 tons, accounting for roughly 7% of total ink output, indicating substantial room for further expansion.

Based on the 2015 market size, the domestic UV ink market was approximately RMB 3.4 billion. In terms of the overall ink market, total ink production in 2015 amounted to about 710,000 tons; since roughly 60% of the weight of conventional solvent-based inks evaporates upon drying, the dry‑weight of all inks was approximately 300,000 tons. Assuming that 30% to 50% of this volume is replaced by UV‑LED inks, the corresponding UV‑LED ink volume would range from 90,000 to 150,000 tons. At a selling price of RMB 120,000 per ton, the market size would be approximately RMB 10.8 to 18 billion. Driven by environmental policies and overseas product‑upgrade cycles, the pace of ink‑technology transitions is expected to accelerate, leading to faster growth for UV inks.