The price increases came into force on 1 July 2018.

The company blamed the increases on governmental initiatives and regulations geared towards environmental protection.

It said these have caused suppliers of photoinitiators to stop or reduce production for limited periods of time. Supplies have also been hit by a factory fire, low stocks, maintenance and production outages.

In addition to the photoinitiators, it said it had also been impacted by increases in key oligomers and monomers, which had affected pricing for all energy cure systems.

Chief supply chain improvement officer Jeffrey Shaw said it was “very difficult” to predict how long any raw material price increases would last.

“We are dealing with a very volatile market right now due to several raw material supplier force majeures, tightness in the market overall, and trade discussions on imposed tariffs.”

Shaw said the prices could continue to rise because of the supply chain volatility.

“The key for prices to come down is market stability for supply availability. We also need fewer raw material supplier force majeures.

“Additionally, less tension in the geopolitical arena will also aid stability. Unless these factors become less volatile, we will likely continue to face markets that include price increases.”

Board member Felipe Mellado added: “Sun Chemical is working hard to safeguard supply and mitigate the shortage of photoinitiators by qualifying new grades and developing new sources.

“But the high levels of raw material costs are unprecedented and have been passed on to ink manufacturers.

“It has been difficult to offset the rising raw material costs on our energy curable inks and unfortunately this has forced us to pass some of these costs on to our customers.”

In March, Sun Chemical increased prices on all of its offset inks and coatings for its customers across all regions.