Pigment Manufacturers and Suppliers for Plastics

Nine named companies manufacture the organic and complex inorganic color pigments used to color plastics, out of the 127 pigment substances that sit inside the 418-substance ECHA Plastic Additives Initiative mapping, the largest single function group in that mapping at 30% of the total. Which of those nine actually makes the pigment a buyer wants, under which brand and since which acquisition, is rarely obvious from a datasheet alone. Pigment supply has consolidated twice in the last five years: BASF sold its Colors & Effects pigment business to DIC and Sun Chemical in a deal agreed in 2019 (EUR 1.15 billion) and closed in 2021, and Sudarshan, based in Pune, completed its acquisition of the Heubach group on 3 March 2025.

This page names the 9 producers behind the organic pigment and complex inorganic color pigment (CICP) classes, maps 10 named pigments to the company that makes them, sets out 5 checks for verifying a pigment supplier before an order and shows where titanium dioxide and carbon black suppliers are covered instead, since both pigments carry their own dedicated supplier directory on this site.

What Is a Pigment Supplier for Plastics?#

A pigment supplier for plastics is a company that manufactures an organic or inorganic pigment, pre-disperses it into a color preparation or masterbatch, or buys and resells a finished grade without making it. All three businesses answer a pigment sourcing query, which is why a search for a pigment supplier returns a chemical manufacturer, a masterbatch producer and a distributor with equal frequency.

The distinction matters because each role sells a different thing: a manufacturer sells the neat pigment powder by the tonne, a masterbatch producer sells a let-down concentrate in a carrier resin, and a distributor adds a storage, repacking and regional-access margin on top of either. Pigments are one of the 43 families covered by the plastic additives reference and sit inside the broader colorants for plastics group alongside dyes and optical brighteners; this page starts from the companies that sell pigments, not from the pigment chemistry itself.

Manufacturer, pigment preparation producer or distributor?#

The three pigment supply roles differ in what they sell: a raw pigment powder, a pre-dispersed preparation, or delivery and repack service. Each has a named example in this directory.

• Manufacturer. Synthesizes an organic pigment or mines and processes an inorganic one, for example Sudarshan making phthalocyanine and quinacridone pigments under the Heubach and Hostaperm names, or Shepherd Color calcining complex inorganic color pigments.
• Pigment preparation or masterbatch producer. Pre-disperses a pigment into a carrier resin or liquid vehicle at a fixed let-down ratio, a role covered in depth on the masterbatch family page rather than here, since a masterbatch producer usually buys the pigment rather than making it.
• Distributor. Buys, stores and resells a pigment grade without manufacturing it; the same distributor houses that carry other plastic additive families, including Brenntag, Univar Solutions, IMCD and Azelis, also carry pigment lines.

Pigment Manufacturers and Suppliers: The Directory#

The 9 pigment manufacturers named in this directory split into two production groups: organic pigment producers, which synthesize phthalocyanine, quinacridone, DPP and azo pigments, and inorganic and CICP pigment producers, which supply simple metal-oxide pigments and calcined spinel or rutile lattice pigments for high heat-resistance applications. Ownership has consolidated around a smaller number of names since 2019, and the table below states each transaction with its date.

This page is one of the category directories inside the plastic additive manufacturers and suppliers directory, the section root that lists all 57 named companies across every additive family.

Table T1. The 9-company pigment supplier directory

An empty or "Not verified" cell means the value is not yet confirmed against a primary source; unconfirmed items stay out of this table rather than being estimated. Venator and several other listed suppliers also produce titanium dioxide, covered separately on its own supplier directory (linked below).

Organic pigment producers#

Organic pigment producers supply the phthalocyanine, quinacridone, diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and azo pigment classes that give plastics their brightest, most transparent hues; the group named in this directory has 3 companies: Sun Chemical, Sudarshan and Toyo. BASF exited pigment manufacturing when it sold its Colors & Effects business to DIC and Sun Chemical in a transaction agreed in 2019 for EUR 1.15 billion and closed in 2021, which is why Sun Chemical, a DIC subsidiary based in Parsippany, New Jersey, now carries lines that once ran under the BASF name. Sudarshan completed its acquisition of the Heubach group on 3 March 2025, bringing the Heubach, Hostaperm, Hostatint and Sudaperm brand lines to a Pune-headquartered owner.

Inorganic and CICP pigment producers#

Inorganic and CICP producers supply simple metal-oxide pigments and coloring metals calcined into a rutile, spinel or hematite lattice, which gives the CICP grades a heat-resistance and chemical-resistance ceiling the organic classes cannot reach; the group named in this directory has 6 companies: Lanxess, Shepherd Color, Vibrantz (the current name for Ferro's pigment business), Dominion Colour Corporation, Brufasol and Venator. Lanxess supplies chrome oxide green and iron oxide from Cologne, while Shepherd Color and Vibrantz supply the CICP spinel and rutile classes, cobalt aluminate blue and chrome antimony titanium buff among them. Dominion Colour Corporation and Brufasol both still supply legacy lead chromate pigments, PY34 and PR104, even though both compounds have been REACH Annex XIV entries since a Commission decision that set their sunset date at 21 May 2015, which pushes new specifications toward bismuth vanadate (PY184, Brufasol) and the chrome-free CICP buffs and blues that Shepherd Color and Vibrantz supply instead.

Which Company Makes Which Pigment?#

Ten named pigments in our sources each trace to one or more of the 9 producers above, and matching a pigment to its maker starts from the Colour Index (C.I.) name, not the trade name. Phthalocyanine blue (C.I. Pigment Blue 15, CAS 147-14-8) and its green counterpart, C.I. Pigment Green 7, come from Sun Chemical, Sudarshan and Toyo, all three of which manufacture the copper phthalocyanine macrocycle in its alpha and beta crystal forms.

Chrome oxide green (C.I. Pigment Green 17, CAS 1308-38-9) comes from Lanxess and Vibrantz, and the same two companies, alongside Shepherd Color, supply the cobalt aluminate blue spinel (C.I. Pigment Blue 28, CAS 1345-16-0) and the chrome antimony titanium buff rutile (C.I. Pigment Brown 24, CAS 68186-90-3) used where a part must hold color above 250 degrees C. Bismuth vanadate (C.I. Pigment Yellow 184, CAS 14059-33-7) comes from Brufasol as the lead-free replacement for chrome yellow, and iron oxide pigments (C.I. Pigment Red 101, CAS 1309-37-1, plus the related yellow and black grades) come from Lanxess and Venator.

Lead chromate pigments (C.I. Pigment Yellow 34 and C.I. Pigment Red 104) still come from Dominion Colour Corporation and Brufasol, sold only into the legacy specifications that have not moved to a chrome-free alternative; their regulatory status is covered in the supplier checks below.

Table T2. Pigment to producer cross-reference

Producer names come only from sourced manufacturer fields in our source library; a pigment with no producer listed on its own substance page is not included here rather than estimated.

How Do You Choose a Pigment Supplier? 5 Checks#

Choosing a pigment supplier takes 5 checks, run in order from the company itself to the raw material behind the pigment. The list below applies to any of the 9 producers named above.

1. Confirm the role. Establish whether the company manufactures the pigment or resells it, since that changes what the quoted price actually buys.
2. Check the food-contact route. Colorants sit outside the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, so an organic pigment or a CICP grade carries no FCM number; only carbon black (FCM 411), titanium dioxide (FCM 610, 805, 873, 1077), zinc sulfide, iron oxide, mica, OB-1 and BBOT have Union-list entries, and every other pigment is checked against national rules and Council of Europe Resolution AP(89)1 instead.
3. Screen against the restriction lists. Lead chromate pigments (PY34, PR104) have been on the SVHC Candidate List since 13 January 2010 and reached their Annex XIV sunset date of 21 May 2015, and cadmium sulfide and cadmium sulfoselenide pigments have been SVHC since 16 December 2013, with cadmium limited to 0.01% by weight in listed plastics under REACH Annex XVII entry 23.
4. Ask about the processing-temperature ceiling. Diarylide azo pigments such as PY83 can decompose above about 200 degrees C and release 3,3'-dichlorobenzidine, which rules them out of high-temperature engineering-plastic processing in favor of a CICP or phthalocyanine grade.
5. Compare by C.I. name and CAS number, not trade name. The same phthalocyanine blue pigment is sold under different brand names by Sun Chemical, Sudarshan and Toyo, and only the Colour Index name and CAS number confirm two offers describe the same chemistry.

Where Are Pigment Manufacturers Located?#

Of the 9 producers in this directory, 3 headquarters are confirmed against a primary or named source: Parsippany, New Jersey for Sun Chemical, Pune, India for Sudarshan and Cologne, Germany for Lanxess. Sun Chemical, a DIC subsidiary, operates from Parsippany, New Jersey. Sudarshan has been headquartered in Pune, India since before its completion of the Heubach acquisition on 3 March 2025, which brought the Heubach, Hostaperm, Hostatint and Sudaperm brand lines under the same roof. Lanxess supplies chrome oxide green, iron oxide and pigment preparations from Cologne, Germany. The remaining 6 headquarters, Toyo, Shepherd Color, Vibrantz, Dominion Colour Corporation, Brufasol and Venator, are not yet confirmed against a primary source and stay out of this section rather than being estimated from the company name or product region.

How Do You Request a Quote for Plastics Pigments?#

A pigment quote is only comparable across suppliers when the request states 5 items: the C.I. name, the CAS number, the target polymer, the dosage and the food-contact route required. Send one request to several verified suppliers through the plastic additive supplier finder, which routes the request by additive category and destination country.

Titanium dioxide and carbon black suppliers (covered separately)#

Titanium dioxide and carbon black are pigments by function but each has its own dedicated supplier directory on this site, because both carry Union-list FCM entries and dosage rules that the organic and CICP pigments above do not share. The titanium dioxide manufacturers and suppliers for plastics page names the white-pigment producers, and the carbon black manufacturers and suppliers page names the black-pigment and UV-screening producers; neither substance is covered again in the tables above.

Pigment manufacturers versus color masterbatch producers#

A pigment manufacturer sells a neat powder or preparation; a masterbatch producer buys that pigment and pre-disperses it into a carrier-resin concentrate at a fixed let-down ratio, a distinction covered in the supply-role section above. The color masterbatch producers and suppliers page names the companies that buy from the manufacturers listed in Table T1 and sell the pre-dispersed concentrate a converter actually molds.