Hubergroup said this week that it would increase the prices of its printing inks from January 2013 in response to rising raw material, energy, transport and logistics costs.

The company’s announcement came a month after the British Coatings Federation warned of an "all-time high" in the costs of the chemicals needed for the production of printing inks.

However, Ultrachem, told PrintWeek this week that they had no plans to raise prices, while Sun Chemical declined to comment on whether it would raise prices.

Flint Group, in a slightly cryptic statement, would only say that it was working to mitigate the rising costs of inputs "to ensure any possible price increases are kept to a minimum". It implemented a Europe-wide 5% increase in prices for its UV and solvent- and water-based inks in January.

And Digitl Ink, the Cheshire-based supplier of inks to the inkjet printing sector, said it would only make major changes to prices – and even then only on a product-by-product basis – if there were "very major increases in raw material costs, transportation costs or a significant negative change in currency exchange rates".

"As with all manufacturing companies, we are sourcing our raw materials and other components of our products from many different suppliers both nationally and internationally," said Steve Martinson of sales, marketing and business development at Digitl Ink.

"There may be fluctuations in the pricing from these suppliers and in the cost of transportation of these goods. We generally build some leeway into our pricing to absorb these types of costs increases."

Hubergroup, whose UK arm is Stehlin Hostag, last increased prices in March 2011 and said its latest round of rises would affect the offset inks sector. However, it will not be able to confirm the level of price rises for another month because raw material prices are volatile.

"We are no longer in a position to offset this enormous increase in costs in almost all areas and still meet the high demands with respect to quality and service," said Hubergeroup Europe group managing director Heiner Klokkers.

Raw materials account for around 50% of the total cost of producing printing inks, and the BCF said suppliers of binding agents and pigments had increased their prices by 80% over the previous two years.

In addition, producers of raw materials had "drastically reduced" their capacity as a result of the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009.