Aluminium price hikes of around 20% in the past year, and similar increases in energy, have pushed the plate manufacturers into the decision to put up prices.

Kodak has also blamed planned "double-digit" price rises for film and conventional plates on rising costs which it cannot absorb.

Agfa UK director of Graphic Systems Laurence Roberts said: "Aluminium and energy are going up and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it."

He said rising costs had impacted heavily on profit margins this year. "We are growing the business, which we are happy about, but making less money," he said.

Third-quarter financial figures for Agfa-Gevaert released last week showed that while its graphics division had increased worldwide sales year-on-year by 3.9% to 287m, operating profits had plummeted 65% to just 5.4m from 15.6m.

Roberts said that exact figures for the increases had not yet been decided, but estimated that prices for digital plates would rise about 6%.

He added that aluminium costs had been driven up by demand in the automotive industry and emerging markets such as China and India.
Fuji's German division has also revealed rises in its domestic market, citing the rising cost of raw materials and energy as the cause.

Fujifilm Graphic Systems UK director Keith Dalton said that no specific increases were planned at present for the UK, but added: "In the current world economic climate, it's a question of 'when', not 'if'."