Information on price increases from 1 June 2021

What we informed about and feared at the beginning of March is now a reality. At the beginning of 2021, we saw very sharp price increases for raw materials. This is due to several factors that have created a sharp increase in demand and a period of very limited supply. The prices of certain raw materials increased very much and the forecast points to further large increases in the coming months. It is mainly the polyolefins, polyethylene and polypropylene that are affected, but several other types of material, including PVC, polyamides, paper and aluminum, have also increased sharply.

-Demand for plastic raw materials increased sharply, much more than expected, at the end of 2020. Since then, demand has steadily increased, which has pushed up prices. Large volumes of raw materials produced in the United States and Saudi Arabia have been redirected to the Asian market instead of reaching the European market. Aluminum prices increase due to China's recovery with increased domestic demand, announced anti-dumping duty on imports to Europe and thus increased demand pressure on European plants. Hoarding caused by expectations of continued price increases and fear of missed or late deliveries drives development.

- The majority of suppliers of plastic raw materials have, due to the difficult situation, gone from giving price per quarter now only giving price per month or weeks. This is now also a reality for aluminum plants. This makes price development difficult or impossible to predict. This affects most of our suppliers of plastic and aluminum products, who are now drastically raising their prices for us.

-There is also an imbalance in the transport system due to changed transport patterns caused by covid-19. Empty shipping containers are not where they need to be. They may be in a completely different place than where the material to be transported is located. The fact that a ship got stuck in the world's ship shortcut for a week did not make things better.

-All this together has resulted in most of our purchase prices being significantly higher. We try to parry and adapt to take most of the increases, but some are too large for us to cope with them ourselves. As the situation is right now, we therefore need to raise the following from 1 June: