The company said the situation had been caused by knock-on increases due to a 40% shortfall in the amount of ethyl acetate reaching the market. The substance is used as a fast-drying solvent in gravure and flexo packaging inks.

Sun Chemical corporate vice president Richard Pettifor said: The force majeure situation on ethyl acetate has been ongoing since June, and is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future.

We cannot continue to absorb this increase. Consequently we regretfully have to pass this on to the flexible packaging market.

BP Chemicals, Europes largest producer of ethyl acetate, has had manufacturing problems at its Hull site, which is operating well below capacity. Another major manufacturer, Celanese, has also been forced to raise tariffs.

A spokesman for BP Chemicals said that the company had experienced problems restarting the plant following a routine shutdown in May. We have now shut down the plant to rectify the problems there, he added. But obviously it could take quite some time for market levels to go back to normal.

MY Holdings chief executive John Monks said that while the increase would not affect his company, it was bad for the beleaguered packaging sector in general.

Jon Cowan, sales director at Kings Lynn-based Decorative Sleeves, said that although his firm did not use Sun inks, the market was extremely tight and there had been supply problems over recent weeks.

Gravure publication inks, which are based on toluene, are unaffected.

Story by John Davies