Quick note for all our clients whose products include injection moulded parts: you’re likely to see part prices increase soon.
An article by European Plastics News says the increase is due to rising prices in petrochemicals and therefore base monomers, a continuing tight supply and high demand. The tight supply is in part due to the severe winter weather in December, which caused problems with transport and put everything on a back foot.
Perhaps the good news is that demand remains high, which indicates that the economy is moving, in contrast to a couple of years ago. Though a lot of this demand is from outside the EU, limiting additional supply just when Europe has been struggling with the weather.
Anyway just in case you’re worried about your particular injection moulded product designproject… don’t worry. The material price is only one component of the manufacturing piece price, with machine time, overheads, transport, assembly, packaging and duty making up a much larger share of the pie. So 10% higher plastic prices will probably only add 1% onto your product cost. Of course if all of those things go up in a general state of inflation, well then we’re all doomed and the sky is going to fall in, so no point worrying about that either!
Anyway, here’s a pretty picture with some scary looking lines to worry you:
