DIC Corporation (Including Sun Chemical Corporation) : Top International Companies in 2022 | Ink World

Sales: DIC: $4.1 billion (¥439,800 million) in graphic arts sales. Total sales: $7.8 billion
(¥855.4 billion)

Major Products: Broad product portfolio with capabilities in web heatset and sheetfed offset; publication and packaging gravure; news ink and publication coldset; flexographic packaging inks; corrugated packaging inks; energy curable inks and coatings; screen inks, inkjet materials, adhesives for packaging, overprint varnishes, specialty coatings, effect inks, security inks and coatings, printing consumables, specialty polymers and pigments for inks, plastics, paints, coatings, and cosmetics.

Key Personnel: Kaoru Ino, president and CEO; Shuuji Furuta, CFO; Yoshinari Akiyama, president, Color & Display Business Group; Naoyoshi Furuta, GM, Production Management Unit; Takashi Ikeda, president, Functional Products Business Group; Kiyotaka Kawashima, GM, Technical Management Unit; Myron Petruch, president and CEO, Sun Chemical; Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging and Graphic Business Group.

Number of Employees: 22,474 as of December 2021.

Comments: DIC Corporation is the world’s largest ink manufacturer, with more than 170 companies, including Sun Chemical, its North American/EMEA subsidiary. DIC reported $4.1 billion in graphic arts sales in 2021, with total sales of $7.8 billion.

Masaaki Nakagawa, GM, Corporate Communications Department, DIC Corporation, reported that the packaging market performed well in 2021 due to the economic recovery and sales increase.
“In commercial printing applications, while other companies struggled to supply products due to the effects of the pandemic, the DIC Group, which continued to provide stable supplies to its customers, increased its share in Europe and the United States,” Nakagawa added. “By region, the Chinese market grew much faster than in 2019.”

Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging & Graphic Business Group, GM, Printing Material Products Division, DIC Corporation, noted that DIC has experienced complex business dynamics in 2021, with multiple variables playing a part in business growth/decline.

“COVID-19, raw material shortages, surges in raw material costs, global logistics turmoil, and other factors have played significant roles, impacting our operations,” said Sota. “China showed strong signs of recovery in the second half of the year. India, Indonesia and Vietnam continued to drive growth.”

Sota observed that packaging materials essential for daily living stayed strong, while publication continued its declining trend. Sustainability continues to be an important emphasis for DIC.

“Sustainability is a key driver for our customers and brand owners and DIC continues its efforts to develop innovative sustainable solutions for its customers,” Sota added.

Nakagawa said that the market remains unstable and difficult to predict.

“Despite the consolidation of sales in the acquired Color Materials business and a sharp rise in crude oil prices and efforts to respond to price hikes in raw material and fuel prices in line with geopolitical risks, the market was difficult due in part to stagnant shipments caused by the impact of lockdowns,” Nakagawa added. “This isn’t a normal situation at this point in the year in 2022.”

“Business conditions still vary by country, where COVID-19 lockdowns, logistics availability, and cost increases have different impacts to the operation. Another common challenge we face throughout the region includes the increasing costs associated with raw materials, logistics and other costs,” Sota added.

Jim Van Horn, Sun Chemical’s chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary, reported that packaging market demand remained resilient in 2021.

“The extraordinary pace of inflationary cost movements and global geopolitical events over the past year have also caused sustained pressure on logistics availability and have increased raw material costs to unprecedented levels,”
Van Horn noted.

“While our global reach and ability to have multiple suppliers provide key materials is a strategic approach that is certainly helping secure the raw materials needed to maintain production, the costs to secure those materials, manufacture our products, and deliver them to our customers has risen dramatically,” he added. “Global events will continue to influence our strategies and actions as we evaluate every opportunity to mitigate these inflationary events and deliver on the expectations our customers have for reliable supply of our products to their facilities.”

In June 2021, DIC closed its acquisition of Germany-based BASF’s global pigments business Colors & Effects (hereinafter, the Color Materials business), initially agreed upon in August 2019. DIC is now integrating the Color Materials business with the DIC pigments business.

“The Color Materials business is globally based, mainly in Europe, and a world leader in luxury pigments, effect pigments for cosmetics, and special inorganic pigments,” Nakagawa said. “The Color Materials business portfolio of technologies, products, production facilities, supply chains, and customer services does not overlap with that of the DIC Group and is thus highly complementary.”

Sota noted that DIC continued its focus on sustainable packaging solutions through various technologies.

“The introduction of inks, adhesives and functional coatings that enhance the recyclability of the package have been a key area of focus,” Sota continued.

Sun Chemical continues to prioritize sustainability as an imperative across its organization, in cross-industry collaborations, in its operations, and in its products and services.

“Collaborations, both private industry partnerships and wider initiatives through leading cross-industry associations dedicated to the sustainability of packaging, continue to be a critical element of Sun Chemical’s sustainability strategy,” said Nikola Juhasz, global technical director of sustainability, Sun Chemical.

Juhasz noted that minimizing the environmental impact of operations is another guiding principle.

“We have been tracking key metrics, such as energy and water consumption, waste generation and disposition, and CO2 emissions for many years, with the aim to improve continuously, year on year,” Juhasz said. “Together with our parent company, the DIC Corporation, Sun Chemical announced a commitment to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, and to achieve a 50% reduction (relative to 2013) by 2030.

“For products and services, Sun Chemical has a substantial annual R&D investment of $100 million, which is dedicated more and more to supporting sustainability-driven initiatives specifically,” she added. “This means bringing products that support packaging lightweighting or simplification, that enable recyclability, repulpability, and/or compostability, and that preserve virgin resources through use of biorenewable and/or recycled content.”

For example, Sun Chemical has continued to advance its portfolio of recycle-friendly washable ink solutions, including a second generation flexo- and gravure-capable solvent-based technology, SunSpectro SolvaWash FL/GR, which received an honorable mention for Innovations in Sustainability during the 2022 Flexographic Technical Association’s (FTA) Sustainability Excellence Award competition.

In addition to the solvent-based products, a UV flexo product line, SolarFlex CRCL, is a commercial, water-based offering coming soon. Further product series similar to SolarFlex CRCL, including for offset, are in planning.

Raw materials continue to be a major concern for the ink industry, and Sun Chemical is no exception. Sota noted that raw material availability and stability in pricing continues to be a challenge.

“The Ukraine/Russia situation, COVID-19 outbreak in China, and increasing oil prices are all challenges that have had a devastating impact to the supply chain,” added Sota. “We expect the situation will continue for at least the short-term future. Our supply chain and technical team have worked tirelessly to continue supply, seek alternate materials, and keep our customer demands fulfilled.”

Jeffrey Shaw, chief supply chain officer at Sun Chemical, noted that prices for most raw material categories have been continuing to escalate at unprecedented levels.

“The escalation has been driven by petrochemical feedstocks reaching historical record levels in some cases,” said Shaw. “Feedstock volatility coupled with supply constraints have led to extreme pricing initiatives in many markets. Oil prices and overall inflationary pressures in all countries are big drivers for these pricing increases.

“In addition to petrochemical-based price increases, other markets are increasing at similar trajectories such as titanium dioxide and nitrocellulose. These markets are impacted by geographical supply disruptions and increased demand as well as global logistics challenges,” Shaw added.

Shaw noted that global transportation and logistics, including over-the-road carriers, ocean freight carriers, warehouse and distribution center providers, are all constrained by equipment availability, drivers, and general labor shortages.

“Due to the recent COVID-19 shutdowns in China, freight rates have stabilized; however all-time high diesel fuel costs are more than offsetting these flat freight rates,” he reported. “Port congestion remains an issue and has generated significant delivery delays as containers are not able to be released in a timely manner. Frequent communication, data sharing, and lead time management remain critical in order for our fully integrated supply chain to be effective to meet
customer demand. We have also diversified our supply base and expanded our product portfolios to supplement our traditional supply strategies.

“As we have all seen around the world, these supply chain challenges have remained persistent,” Shaw concluded. “Some headwinds are constant while others new ones occur daily. Oil prices, Russia’s war with Ukraine, inflation, employment rates, new supply chain legislation signed recently in the US, port congestion and ocean container availability, and potentially different COVID variants will all impact our supply chains in the future. Supply chain stabilization will take some time, and the issues noted will likely occur through the first half of 2023.”

As a result, Nakagawa said that the outlook for the second half is uncertain due to geopolitical risks, soaring raw material and fuel prices, reduced automobile production, and more.
“We will work to secure profits by continuing to pass on higher raw material and fuel prices,” added Nakagawa.

Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan 103-8233Tel: +81 3-5203-7838DIC: www.dic-global.com/en Sun Chemical: www.sunchemical.com Sales: DIC: $4.1 billion (¥439,800 million) in graphic arts sales. Total sales: $7.8 billion(¥855.4 billion)Major Products: Broad product portfolio with capabilities in web heatset and sheetfed offset; publication and packaging gravure; news ink and publication coldset; flexographic packaging inks; corrugated packaging inks; energy curable inks and coatings; screen inks, inkjet materials, adhesives for packaging, overprint varnishes, specialty coatings, effect inks, security inks and coatings, printing consumables, specialty polymers and pigments for inks, plastics, paints, coatings, and cosmetics.Key Personnel: Kaoru Ino, president and CEO; Shuuji Furuta, CFO; Yoshinari Akiyama, president, Color & Display Business Group; Naoyoshi Furuta, GM, Production Management Unit; Takashi Ikeda, president, Functional Products Business Group; Kiyotaka Kawashima, GM, Technical Management Unit; Myron Petruch, president and CEO, Sun Chemical; Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging and Graphic Business Group.Number of Employees: 22,474 as of December 2021.Comments: DIC Corporation is the world’s largest ink manufacturer, with more than 170 companies, including Sun Chemical, its North American/EMEA subsidiary. DIC reported $4.1 billion in graphic arts sales in 2021, with total sales of $7.8 billion.Masaaki Nakagawa, GM, Corporate Communications Department, DIC Corporation, reported that the packaging market performed well in 2021 due to the economic recovery and sales increase.“In commercial printing applications, while other companies struggled to supply products due to the effects of the pandemic, the DIC Group, which continued to provide stable supplies to its customers, increased its share in Europe and the United States,” Nakagawa added. “By region, the Chinese market grew much faster than in 2019.”Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging & Graphic Business Group, GM, Printing Material Products Division, DIC Corporation, noted that DIC has experienced complex business dynamics in 2021, with multiple variables playing a part in business growth/decline.“COVID-19, raw material shortages, surges in raw material costs, global logistics turmoil, and other factors have played significant roles, impacting our operations,” said Sota. “China showed strong signs of recovery in the second half of the year. India, Indonesia and Vietnam continued to drive growth.”Sota observed that packaging materials essential for daily living stayed strong, while publication continued its declining trend. Sustainability continues to be an important emphasis for DIC.“Sustainability is a key driver for our customers and brand owners and DIC continues its efforts to develop innovative sustainable solutions for its customers,” Sota added.Nakagawa said that the market remains unstable and difficult to predict.“Despite the consolidation of sales in the acquired Color Materials business and a sharp rise in crude oil prices and efforts to respond to price hikes in raw material and fuel prices in line with geopolitical risks, the market was difficult due in part to stagnant shipments caused by the impact of lockdowns,” Nakagawa added. “This isn’t a normal situation at this point in the year in 2022.”“Business conditions still vary by country, where COVID-19 lockdowns, logistics availability, and cost increases have different impacts to the operation. Another common challenge we face throughout the region includes the increasing costs associated with raw materials, logistics and other costs,” Sota added.Jim Van Horn, Sun Chemical’s chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary, reported that packaging market demand remained resilient in 2021.“The extraordinary pace of inflationary cost movements and global geopolitical events over the past year have also caused sustained pressure on logistics availability and have increased raw material costs to unprecedented levels,”Van Horn noted.“While our global reach and ability to have multiple suppliers provide key materials is a strategic approach that is certainly helping secure the raw materials needed to maintain production, the costs to secure those materials, manufacture our products, and deliver them to our customers has risen dramatically,” he added. “Global events will continue to influence our strategies and actions as we evaluate every opportunity to mitigate these inflationary events and deliver on the expectations our customers have for reliable supply of our products to their facilities.”In June 2021, DIC closed its acquisition of Germany-based BASF’s global pigments business Colors & Effects (hereinafter, the Color Materials business), initially agreed upon in August 2019. DIC is now integrating the Color Materials business with the DIC pigments business.“The Color Materials business is globally based, mainly in Europe, and a world leader in luxury pigments, effect pigments for cosmetics, and special inorganic pigments,” Nakagawa said. “The Color Materials business portfolio of technologies, products, production facilities, supply chains, and customer services does not overlap with that of the DIC Group and is thus highly complementary.”Sota noted that DIC continued its focus on sustainable packaging solutions through various technologies.“The introduction of inks, adhesives and functional coatings that enhance the recyclability of the package have been a key area of focus,” Sota continued.Sun Chemical continues to prioritize sustainability as an imperative across its organization, in cross-industry collaborations, in its operations, and in its products and services.“Collaborations, both private industry partnerships and wider initiatives through leading cross-industry associations dedicated to the sustainability of packaging, continue to be a critical element of Sun Chemical’s sustainability strategy,” said Nikola Juhasz, global technical director of sustainability, Sun Chemical.Juhasz noted that minimizing the environmental impact of operations is another guiding principle.“We have been tracking key metrics, such as energy and water consumption, waste generation and disposition, and CO2 emissions for many years, with the aim to improve continuously, year on year,” Juhasz said. “Together with our parent company, the DIC Corporation, Sun Chemical announced a commitment to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, and to achieve a 50% reduction (relative to 2013) by 2030.“For products and services, Sun Chemical has a substantial annual R&D investment of $100 million, which is dedicated more and more to supporting sustainability-driven initiatives specifically,” she added. “This means bringing products that support packaging lightweighting or simplification, that enable recyclability, repulpability, and/or compostability, and that preserve virgin resources through use of biorenewable and/or recycled content.”For example, Sun Chemical has continued to advance its portfolio of recycle-friendly washable ink solutions, including a second generation flexo- and gravure-capable solvent-based technology, SunSpectro SolvaWash FL/GR, which received an honorable mention for Innovations in Sustainability during the 2022 Flexographic Technical Association’s (FTA) Sustainability Excellence Award competition.In addition to the solvent-based products, a UV flexo product line, SolarFlex CRCL, is a commercial, water-based offering coming soon. Further product series similar to SolarFlex CRCL, including for offset, are in planning.Raw materials continue to be a major concern for the ink industry, and Sun Chemical is no exception. Sota noted that raw material availability and stability in pricing continues to be a challenge.“The Ukraine/Russia situation, COVID-19 outbreak in China, and increasing oil prices are all challenges that have had a devastating impact to the supply chain,” added Sota. “We expect the situation will continue for at least the short-term future. Our supply chain and technical team have worked tirelessly to continue supply, seek alternate materials, and keep our customer demands fulfilled.”Jeffrey Shaw, chief supply chain officer at Sun Chemical, noted that prices for most raw material categories have been continuing to escalate at unprecedented levels.“The escalation has been driven by petrochemical feedstocks reaching historical record levels in some cases,” said Shaw. “Feedstock volatility coupled with supply constraints have led to extreme pricing initiatives in many markets. Oil prices and overall inflationary pressures in all countries are big drivers for these pricing increases.“In addition to petrochemical-based price increases, other markets are increasing at similar trajectories such as titanium dioxide and nitrocellulose. These markets are impacted by geographical supply disruptions and increased demand as well as global logistics challenges,” Shaw added.Shaw noted that global transportation and logistics, including over-the-road carriers, ocean freight carriers, warehouse and distribution center providers, are all constrained by equipment availability, drivers, and general labor shortages.“Due to the recent COVID-19 shutdowns in China, freight rates have stabilized; however all-time high diesel fuel costs are more than offsetting these flat freight rates,” he reported. “Port congestion remains an issue and has generated significant delivery delays as containers are not able to be released in a timely manner. Frequent communication, data sharing, and lead time management remain critical in order for our fully integrated supply chain to be effective to meetcustomer demand. We have also diversified our supply base and expanded our product portfolios to supplement our traditional supply strategies.“As we have all seen around the world, these supply chain challenges have remained persistent,” Shaw concluded. “Some headwinds are constant while others new ones occur daily. Oil prices, Russia’s war with Ukraine, inflation, employment rates, new supply chain legislation signed recently in the US, port congestion and ocean container availability, and potentially different COVID variants will all impact our supply chains in the future. Supply chain stabilization will take some time, and the issues noted will likely occur through the first half of 2023.”As a result, Nakagawa said that the outlook for the second half is uncertain due to geopolitical risks, soaring raw material and fuel prices, reduced automobile production, and more.“We will work to secure profits by continuing to pass on higher raw material and fuel prices,” added Nakagawa.