[Motel]

I do purchasing for a company that manufactures equipment for the oil and gas industry and we're starting to see the first part of the fallout from the past years increases in the cost of energy.

The first one on the radar seems to be resin. It has a lot of uses but the two that I have seen major price increases on are in a type of cable (SOOW, copper wiring) and shrink wrap (some people call it stretch wrap. Used for packaging).

In the past 4 months the price of the cable has increased by 31% (versus about 6% over the past couple of years) and the price of shrink wrap has risen about 50% over the last 6-8 months.

Certainly well above inflation.

Has anybody else seen any other dramatic price increases on oil based products (other than gasoline obviously).

[donshan]

Natural gas prices have gone up over 400% since about 2001, and doubled recently. This has made all products made from natural gas zoom up in price. This especially includes all petrochemicals, ammonia used in fertilizers ( see thread in this forum) and pesticides. Natural gas is the prime source of hydrogen gas that is used to make many other chemical products.

These petrochemical raw materials are in most everything to some degree, and are a serious cost issue for domestic manufacturers. The rise in natural gas prices is favoring imports from countries with low natural gas prices, Venzeula to name one.

[perplexd]

Actually, I just got done reading this article which discusses PVC prices and supply issues.

[Motel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('perplexd', 'A')ctually, I just got done reading this article which discusses PVC prices and supply issues.