Mitsui Chemicals to Stop Manufacturing Toner Resins

Mitsui Chemicals to Stop Manufacturing Toner Resins

A key supplier of toner resins used in the manufacture of toners for printer cartridges has told its printer OEM and aftermarket customers it will withdraw from the business in 2025.

The Tokyo-based Mitsui Chemicals (Mitsui) says it will cease supplying styrene-acrylic and polyester resins for use in toner binders at the end of the first half of 2025. The company “will seek to minimize disruption to stakeholders as it moves forward with its withdrawal from the business.”

According to Mitsui, its Coatings & Engineering Materials Division is engaged in the business associated with styrene–acrylic resin and polyester resin for toner binders. A toner binder is a raw material from which toner is produced for use in printers and copier devices. In addition to binding together the colorants, waxes, and other raw materials of which toner is composed, the binder melts when heated, affixing the toner to the paper.

The company says the business’s profitability “has been placed under extreme pressure by escalating price competition, soaring raw material prices and shrinking demand for printing as a result of changes in work styles since the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In response to this downturn, Mitsui has undertaken all possible efforts to rationalize the business and reduce costs but has now determined that it is unfeasible to ensure the level of profitability required to sustain the business and has therefore decided to withdraw from it.

What’s next?

Mitsui is advising its shareholders that the impact of this decision on the financial performance of the Mitsui Chemicals Group will be minor; there is no change to the earnings forecast.

Graham Galliford (pictured), a world-renowned consultant to the imaging industry at California-based Galliford Consulting, is meeting with several toner manufacturers during the RemaxWorld Expo in Zhuhai, China. He will provide confidential advice and options. He has worked in toner-based printing technology since 1974.

According to Galliford, a combination of factors is affecting the business of producing, marketing, and selling toner binders, a key ingredient in all powder toners.

“Analyzing global powder toner manufacturing and forecasting trends in manufacturing volume, it is clear that total toner production is starting to decline,” Galliford said.

The global annual toner production has reduced from 180,000 tons to 155,000 tons over the last five years, a decline of 14%.

There has also been a progressive shift in toner manufacturing from “western countries” and Japan to East Asia in particular and Asia in general,” he added.

“This has been in combination with a shift in global market share from OEM to third-party manufacturers. There are several effects that this has had on the toner binder business. Third-party manufacturers have typically not been supplied by the major toner binder manufacturers.

“These major manufacturers have, in the majority, been large chemical producers. Principally, OEMs have sourced raw materials, including toner binders, locally. The decline of market share of the non-Japanese OEMs in favor of Japanese OEMs has meant that the majority of toner binder manufactured and supplied to OEMs in recent times has been from Japanese chemical companies such as Mitsui. There are seven Japanese companies in the toner binder business today. 53% of the production of these seven companies is of STAC resin, with the remainder being polyester resins or PEs.”

You can read Galliford’s full explanation of the toner binder business here.

Related:

• HCCT to Showcase Low-melt Color Toner at RemaxWorld
• How Much Do You Know About Toner?
• G&G Sources the Best Toners in the World to Provide a Better Printing Experience
• Manufacturing Color Toner – Who How and Where
• Facts and Lies over the Toxins in Your Printer Cartridges
• Why Most OEMs Are Japanese

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