Kodak (Rochester, NY) has announced that it will increase the price of all Kodak offset printing plates globally by up to 9%. Over the past 12 months, Kodak has been absorbing significant increases in costs for raw materials that are used to produce its offset plates – including aluminum, chemicals and packaging materials. “Kodak continues to improve productivity and efficiencies to help offset these marketplace dynamics, but the magnitude of the materials’ cost impact has made it necessary to increase plate prices,” the company added. “The printing plates market is both technology-intensive and cost-competitive,” said Brad Kruchten, President of the Print Systems Divisionat Kodak. “As a result, there’s no room for us to continue to absorb these escalating raw materials’ costs without raising our own prices. Our approach to implementation will affect our newest and most technically-advanced products the least, while our more mature offerings, which are less efficient and less advanced, will see higher price increases,” he added. “This, in turn, will help drive long-term viability, profitability and sustainability for our printers and our industry partners.” Kodak added that specific details of the new pricing structure will be communicated to all customers and dealers across the world shortly. Plate price increases were previously announced for China in January of this year.
Kodak to increase price of offset printing plates
