Current Status and Trends of China's Ink Market Development

After joining the WTO, foreign trade companies and multinational corporations entered China, which promoted the development of China's printing and ink industry, and also brought new opportunities and challenges to the ink industry. The ink industry has always maintained a sustained upward momentum in recent years. In 2002, China's total ink production reached 220,000 tons, ranking fourth in the world, second only to the United States, Japan, and Germany. At present, China's production of ink is increasing, showing a variety of economic systems coexisting, Sino-foreign joint ventures and joint-stock companies as the main situation, employees have also increased.

According to statistics, the major economic indicators of the national ink production climbed in 2002. Compared with 2001, ink production rose by 8.8% in 2002, total industrial output value (current price) increased by 7.7%, total sales increased by 9.5%, sales revenue increased by 9.4%, total profit increased by 20%, and per capita profitability increased by 27%. The total profits and taxes rose by 8%.

In 2002, the composition of domestic ink production, lithographic ink accounted for 64% of the total, up 3.7% over last year; Toppan ink accounted for 3.2% of the total, down 4% over last year (except flexographic paper ink); gravure ink It accounted for 19.3% of the total, up 14.6% over the previous year.

In 2002, the members of the Ink Industry Statistical Information Group completed the top ten major economic indicators:

In the first half of this year, despite the SARS epidemic, China’s ink production has suffered little impact. From January to June, the national ink output was 103,953 tons, an increase of 26.92% over the same period of last year. The production volume in Guangdong, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Shanxi from January to June were 27,634 tons, 18,530 tons, 14,959 tons, 12,997 tons and 9,685 tons, respectively, accounting for 26.5% of the total national ink production, 17.8%, and 14.4% respectively. 12.5%, 9.3%. The ink production in these five provinces and cities is the main base for ink production in China.

At the same time, according to the statistics of 21 provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government, the total ink production value (constant price) from January to June was 332.24 million yuan, an increase of 19.35% compared with the same period of last year; sales revenue was 31.170 million yuan, an increase of 15.16% over the same period of last year; total profits and taxes 37.571 million yuan, an increase of 39.73 million yuan over the same period of last year; total profit of 250.4 million yuan, an increase of 40.03 million yuan over the same period last year; loss of the loss of 150.10 million yuan enterprises, an increase of 6.82% over the same period last year; accounts receivable net 1.481965 million yuan , an increase of 8.91% over the same period last year; inventory of finished goods 555.06 million yuan, an increase of 28.22% over the same period last year; production and marketing rate reached 97.47%.

The product structure of domestic ink production from January to June of this year is insignificant from last year's annual statistics, which is lithographic ink accounted for 65.4%, letterpress ink 8.2% (flexo paper ink 6.3%), and gravure ink accounted for 21.3%. Special ink additives accounted for 5.1%. Lithographic inks are still the dominant product, but the proportion of high-grade, fast-setting high-grade inks is increasing. At the same time, water-based environmental protection inks, especially water-based flexo paper inks, are expected to be further developed. In addition, with the continuous advancement of science and technology, the fields of printing and ink applications are gradually expanding, the types of inks are diversified, and the printing of inks and printing has expanded from the field of traditional printed printing to the field of non-printing, as in recent years in China. The just-emerged color ink jet system was called by the printing industry as "the fifth largest printing technology in the 20th century." It can be widely used in advertising, publicity, and office work. In the United States, Japan and other developed countries, this technology It grows at a rate of 1% to 5% every year. So far, domestic production of ink for color inkjet systems is still blank.

With China's accession to the WTO, the domestic market is no longer a closed system. As China's gradual lifting of trade barriers and the continuous decline in the overall level of tariffs, the Chinese market has become increasingly international. At present, the tariff on ink products has been reduced from about 15% before the accession to the WTO to 8.2%, plus the VAT rate, and the comprehensive ink tax rate is 26.594%. The most direct response from the market is reflected in the ink imports. In 2002, China imported a total of 31,596 tons of ink, an increase of 27.8% over 2001, accounting for 14% of total ink sales in the country. The total amount of imports was US$10.90 million, an increase of 44% over 2001, and the average price was US$6358/ton. From January to June 2003, China imported 1,7270.7 tons of ink, an increase of 23.48% over the same period of 2002; the amount of imported ink was US$12,047,000, an increase of 44.29% over the same period of 2002. Imported inks mainly come from Japan, South Korea, the United States, Germany, and China's Hong Kong and Taiwan.

At the same time, China's ink exports have not been ups and downs. The annual ink export volume accounts for about 5% of the total amount of ink in the country. The specific situation is that in 2002, the total amount of exported ink was 9,533 tons (a decrease of 1.6% compared with 2001), accounting for 4.3% of the total amount of ink in the country; the total amount of exports was 46.65 million US dollars, 2.9% less than in 2001, and the average price was US$4,894/ton. . From January to June 2003, 4,789 tons of inks were exported, an increase of 4.06% over the same period of 2002; the export value was US$19.86 million, a decrease of 26.09% over the same period of 2002. China's ink is mainly exported to Asia, Africa, Europe, and some North American countries and regions.

It can be seen that the increase in ink imports in the past two years is much higher than the rate of ink exports, and the average unit price of imported ink is also much higher than the average unit price of exported ink. Another situation worthy of attention is that the Chinese ink market is at a stage of development. Although the technical quality of major domestic products can meet the demand for printing quality, some high-end and special inks still need to be imported. At the same time, with the ever-increasing pressure of competition in the international market, some large multinational corporations have increased their focus on the Chinese market and shifted some of their production capacity to China. There have been many foreign large ink companies in the joint venture, sole proprietorship to set up factories, entrusted to split the operation and sales, processing, or with the printing press matching ink set point into the Chinese market. In addition, some multinational ink companies have used their advantages to import various low-priced organic pigments from China through cross-border purchases, and then used their technical advantages to make inks or colorants. Chimo is sold back to the Chinese market. Get more profits. In the future, how China's ink production industry develops and how it will not be swallowed up by predators in the international ink production field has become a serious issue for the domestic ink industry.