Haydale Graphene Industries plc (AIM: HAYD), the global advanced materials group, is pleased to announce that Haydale Technologies (Taiwan) Co., Ltd. (‘HTW’) has signed a supply agreement for specific graphene-based and other speciality inks to Graphene Platform Corp (‘GPC’), Tokyo, Japan.
GPC will brand the inks as “GP Graphene Ink”, which will be specifically targeted to the printed electronics market primarily in Japan, but with the potential to target other Asian countries where there is also a significant market.
According to the market research report on the “Printed Electronics Market by Material (Ink, Substrate), Technology (Inkjet, Screen, Gravure, Flexographic), Device (Sensors, Displays, Batteries, RFID, Lighting, Photovoltaic) and Geography – Global Forecast to 2022”, the printed electronics market was valued at US$3.13 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach US$12.10 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 22.38% between 2016 and 2022. A major factor driving the printed electronics market is the proliferation of the Internet of Things which is driving the demand for printed electronic products. The Asia Pacific region is forecast to account for the largest share of the total global printed electronics market. This region has emerged as a major electronics manufacturing hub with considerable manufacturing activities in countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea, which is boosting the demand for printed electronics systems in this region.
Commenting on the long-term supply agreement, Ray Gibbs, CEO of Haydale, said: “GPC has the right profile and customer focus to demonstrate that sales and marketing of our formulated graphene-based inks, specifically into Japan and other Asian countries, will be well received. We have been working for many months on ink formulations with GPC’s Graphene-Like-Graphite materials in order to meet customers’ specifications. Now is the right time to formalise the joint development work with
a supply agreement. Japan is a big market and GPC’s presence is highly regarded and we look forward to working with them.”
Shoji Hasegawa, CEO of Graphene Platform Corp, said: “Haydale’s specialty formulated inks offer unique properties specifically according to the individual customers’ needs and will help us when marketing to the printed electronics market, an area we know well and that has good sales potential.”