I wonder if any of the companies have tried to achieve exclusivity with some of the organizations that use their ink (schools, universities, artist guilds, etc..) I would fear that in doing so, they would be unable to fill the demand, but 2.5 million units is certainly nothing to just write off, and I suppose that wouldn’t be the case if they were able to handle an order of magnitude more production previously. (I suppose those would be my own personal fears..) As an industry though they need to do as you suggested. Though I’m not sure whittling down your already niche market to the people that want the premium inks is a good idea, unless they are able to maintain price levels. (persistence for perfection is what the Japanese are good at) The alternatives of expanding the demand for the inks will probably be their saving grace, if they can take hold of it.
I think they could pull it off, maybe, but unfortunately my posts here don’t help them at all.. They need to drive the demand. With only 10 manufacturers remaining, the market will be come more competitive, no matter how nonvolatile it is.
They’re saying the hard part is the glue, which is coming into demand for other uses.
Sounds like it is difficult to make this glue. This is where a good synthetic could help.
That would be the good thing of getting into school art classes. It would help drive potential customers later on. The article sighted that the glue is being used more and more for other industries. Thus reducing the amount and quality available for ink production. It could come to the point of having to start using a different glue.