In response to the policies of environmental protection, such as the one issued in 2011 deciding that ecological paper should be gradually applied to all the primary and secondary schools textbooks, eco-inks are experiencing rapid growth.

 

The environmental-friendly series, including soy ink, UV ink, water-based ink and other benzene-free inks, are achieving increasing market share. Water-based and benzene-free inks now account for 20 percent of nationwide printing inks.

 

Though the eco-inks charge more than traditional ones, their quality superiority still encourage manufacturers to expand production. Once the pricing disadvantages solved after mass production lowering producing cost of the new products, eco-inks are very likely to reach a broader market.

 

In 2013, printing ink output in China has reached 575,000 metric tons with a sales volume of 14.4 billion, making China one of the four largest ink producers globally. The other three countries are the United States, Germany and Japan.