Ink manufactured in India

[Lukew]

Whats the go with some of the large ink companies having their ink manufactured in India?
Is it the same quality product it once was when manufactured in Europe / Japan etc ?
Or is it manufactured in India at a cost. Equaling shit in shit out, or do they still use high quality raw materials & simply capitalise on the low cost of labor in such a country?

Hostman Steinberg is manufactured in India is it not?
Sun Chemicals apparent top of the range inks are manufactured in India

Perhaps with the price war on ink & the declining profit margins even the manufacturers in Europe / Japan / USA are reducing the quality of raw materials in their inks.

I don't know the manufacturing cost of ink but I fail to see how a company can develop, manufacture, distribute a high quality ink & sell it at a staring price of $8.50 - $9.50 Aud per Kg. With larger companies paying even less.
Perhaps a lot of ink that floods the market is manufactured on the shit in shit out principle & not just ink that's been manufactured in India/Korea etc.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Cold]

I work for a smaller independent ink company in the US. It is difficult to compete soley on price with the Van Sons, Sun Chems, etc. that are having their inks manufactured in India or elsewhere, where they can get it done the cheapest. Compounded by the fact that in the States here, there is no Tax on ink imports, it makes the option attractive to big business bottom lines.

However, I still believe in value and we still sell value. Customer service, Quality, and Custom solutions don't have as high a demand as they used to, but there still is a demand. That's where we fit in.

Commercial Printing has been a big hit for us, but fortunately the Folding Carton printers still like to have a partner in their ink maker.

On a side note- Thank you printers of the world.


Cold

 

[rmbob]

Lukew--

Lukew--

Whats the go with some of the large ink companies having their ink manufactured in India?
Is it the same quality product it once was when manufactured in Europe / Japan etc ?
Or is it manufactured in India at a cost. Equaling shit in shit out, or do they still use high quality raw materials & simply capitalise on the low cost of labor in such a country?

Hostman Steinberg is manufactured in India is it not?
Sun Chemicals apparent top of the range inks are manufactured in India

Perhaps with the price war on ink & the declining profit margins even the manufacturers in Europe / Japan / USA are reducing the quality of raw materials in their inks.

I don't know the manufacturing cost of ink but I fail to see how a company can develop, manufacture, distribute a high quality ink & sell it at a staring price of $8.50 - $9.50 Aud per Kg. With larger companies paying even less.
Perhaps a lot of ink that floods the market is manufactured on the shit in shit out principle & not just ink that's been manufactured in India/Korea etc.

What are your thoughts?

You seem to be talking Shit!! your knowledge is limited since you live and work in a shell. You may not be aware but no co. will invest millions to produce low quality goods and infact most of these cos are using their indian operations as an export hub to the south asian countries as export from usa is expensive including high mfg. costs !!

 

[mazengh]

i know hostmann inks made in india are really bad, they don't dry well, and require a lot of powder... tested different series from them(resista, impresseion, rapida, surprise)

 

[onlinestar]

what is it with your language guys. makes me sick

 

[Dan Roll]

It is a mistake to equate manufacture in India with low quality, either in technique or in ingredient quality. Hindustan ink (marketed for a while in the US as Micro Ink, and it is significant they made it just outside of Chicago, not in India) was a huge company before they sold out to the Germans and I always was impressed with how their inks ran. Labor costs may be lower in India and I suspect the Indian government is currently more business friendly than either the US or Germany, but transport costs are high and import costs vary from one country to another. I used to think India was the largest flaxseed producer in the world (Linseed oil, a good varnish ingredient is actually flaxseed oil) but it turns out the Canadians dominate this market, so the Indians do not enjoy any advantage there. I have seen Indians using flaxseed oil as cooking fuel, so it can not be too expensive there.

 

[Green Printer]

Country of origin does not equate to quality. There are ink companies in the USA that have virtually no quality control. They sell cheap and use the cheapest raw materials. Many times they buy raw materials that were rejected by other ink manufacturers.
If you want good ink you must qc the raw materials BEFORE they are blended and not try to fix the batch after it is made.
Some ink manufacturers are treating their customers like a bunch of chumps figuring they will buy whatever you give them along with the BS explanation that the ink is exactly as the previous batch.

 

[Dan Roll]

Quality ink is often in the eye of the beholder. When Hostman Steinberg bought National Printing ink in the US, National had a pretty big market share in the sheetfed business (this was in the early 1990's). But when HS, with the best of intentions and expectations, switched the ink formulas to the German formulas, they abruptly lost most of their business. The Germans were astounded by this, as they believed their formulations and materials were superior to those of National. Unfortunately, the customers did not agree.

 

[Cold]

It is a mistake to equate manufacture in India with low quality, either in technique or in ingredient quality. Hindustan ink (marketed for a while in the US as Micro Ink, and it is significant they made it just outside of Chicago, not in India) was a huge company before they sold out to the Germans and I always was impressed with how their inks ran. Labor costs may be lower in India and I suspect the Indian government is currently more business friendly than either the US or Germany, but transport costs are high and import costs vary from one country to another. I used to think India was the largest flaxseed producer in the world (Linseed oil, a good varnish ingredient is actually flaxseed oil) but it turns out the Canadians dominate this market, so the Indians do not enjoy any advantage there. I have seen Indians using flaxseed oil as cooking fuel, so it can not be too expensive there.

I agree with your opinion on Hindustan, it took them a while to achieve, but towards the end they were doing a really good job.

 

[Cold]

Country of origin does not equate to quality.

This is very true. I was impressed with the Hindustan materials and they were Indian.

But, there is a possible difference in philosophy in a company that originated in India and took it's products globally to a company that originated in Holland, or elsewhere, but took it's manufacturing to India because they could make their product cheaper.

My heart goes out to the families of the 23 children that passed at school in India this week.

 

[Lukew]

Perhaps my first post wasn't read properly by some other posters.
You will see second line I actually asked
Is it the same quality product it once was when manufactured in Europe / Japan etc ?

You will see the six line down I had said
Perhaps with the price war on ink & the declining profit margins even the manufacturers in Europe / Japan / USA are reducing the quality of raw materials in their inks.

It is obvious the cost of labour and most other manufacturing related costs would be lower in india then in USA or the EU.
Any ink that that I have seen that's been manufactured in India sells for many $ per kilo under ink manufactured elsewhere, so that brought my question of is the ink being manufactured with the highest quality raw materials or has there been cuts made along the way to capitalise and broaden their profit margin.

On a side note, If a ink manufacturer was developing & manufacturing their ink in the EU or USA then decided to move their manufacturing to another country. To keep the exact same product, the raw materials would have to be the same they had initially used & the way the ink had been manufactured would have to be the same process.

I wont mention the company name, but I do know of one ink company that has their ink manufactured in India. They were adding a new ink to their line-up and had shipped XXXX quantity to Aus to test the waters so to speak & see if there was much of a market with this new ink.
We were one of the companies who gave it a run, only to find one particular colour had dried flecks of ink throughout the fresh tin. Every tin with the same batch number that was sent to us was the same.
The company had to suspend distributing the ink & wait until a fresh batch was shipped to Aus.
Hows that for great quality control.

 

[rmbob]

Guys start thinking out of the BOX. Cos. in India produce inks of high quality as required by the prevailing conditions and very competitively priced. Hindusthan inks shook the market worldwide with it's quality and unmatched prices !!till the Germans bought it!!

 

[bbtommyd]

Mirco pretty much was an ink for people who weren't real particular how the final product looked. It did an adequate job for folks like RRD and B. Flower, but if you intend to print nice stuff, you are right in assuming that when you sell a product cheap, it's a cheap product. If you are looking for a product to "get you by", buy cheap.

 

[D Ink Man]

Engineered ink product for a given press, consistency on the ink from batch to batch and professional technical service are the keys to producing, supplying quality ink.

Cost/Selling price should be way down the ladder for the ink buyers if you can get this from an ink supplier. It pays big dividends for the print customer that are almost always unmeasurable by their accountants. Talk to the press operators. They know and can tell you. D

 

[CD102]

Folding carton companies treat ink as a commodity and management at the corporate level is more concerned with the price paid rather than what the ink actually costs in the long run.