The Rising Price of Raw Materials - Are You Being Affected?

The Rising Price Of Raw Materials - Is Your Business Being Affected?

The price of steel has been increasing by record amounts in the past months. In a study provided by the Ohio department of transportation, I saw that from April to May of this year the price of steel increased by 150 dollars a ton. To put that in perspective, consider that before that jump it had taken about two years to increase by that amount, from February '06 to January '08. The reason for the huge jump has been a couple things. First, the majority of the world's steel today is produced in China and India. In preparation for this year's Olympics, and as a result of the recent earthquakes, China has had to re-dedicate itself to internal infrastructure issues. What that means is that it's a lot harder to get your hands on steel, and if you're able to, you're going to have to pay a lot more for it.

Our industry is heavily affected by steel prices, and retail companies all across the nation are surely feeling the pinch of these raw material increases. Regardless of whether you do your manufacturing overseas or domestically, the price of raw materials has increased universally, seemingly as the economy has waned. Are you finding that steel prices are putting your business behind the 8-ball? We'd like to hear your story.