Price increases

S Ebels

Just got another price increase announcement from Carrier Great Lakes. 5% up on all residential and small packaged units due to " raw material increases and commodity shortages".

This is getting scary. They just had a 10% jump the first of January. 15% in 6 weeks?

What are the rest of you seeing?

Weezbo

I thought maybe someone is trying to put the company,

i buy lots of materials from, out of business.
today i noticed that costs this year for me went up like too much. so i plan to basically cease doing business with them unless i have to ....to day i asked the counter "chief" "say, is there someone trying to sabotauge the company?
Not necessasairly here in town,... the reason i ask is there is really weird stuff happening ,i'm telling you, you guys are going to start losing alot of your customers"
They are stiffing the very guys who have kept the place alive,the parts arent here we ordered 6 months ago,we come in today and cant get this that and the other,why isnt it on the shelf? who communicates the lack of parts to the inside sales staff when we leave? and if you cant get the guys on the phone right now and have them throw it on the truck so it will get here by tomorrow,like the guys used to do, i'm thinking pretty soon, you guys wont have to worry about ordering parts .

Mike Reavis_2

yes, it is the same in the mid-atlantic area.

It is one factor at work that will eventually cool down the economy here. I hope you have a sytem in place that allows you to adjust your prices with as little trouble as possible.

Mike

Leo G_99

Recent article

in one of our daily's was talking how the construction industry here in Vancouver, was seeing 1-2.5% increases per year for the last 6-7 years. Well 2004 saw a 10% jump, most of it due to steel/concrete/materials. With the 2010 Olympics building projects slated to start this year, I wonder if there will be cost over runs eh?

Leo G

S Ebels

Speaking of concrete.............

I was yakking with the owner of a regional sized Redi-Mix company a couple weeks ago. They run about 50 trucks from their 6 locations so they are pretty good size. He said there are industry projections that concrete will hit $100 a cubic yard this summer. We bought it for less than $60 last year.

Weezbo

last year Scott the rebar allotments were sold out...

prior to the season! yah buddy things are changing,think how fricked up this is for our "counter parts " in the trucking industry...this new gas fee deal ,like state to state ,icc nfta and the rets of the b.s. aint been putting the squeeze on them enough....

Ranger

It aint lookin'pretty folks....

...Remember all those ridiculous increases in raw materials and fuel last year? I strongly suspect manufactures (and others) are now
looking at there books and realizing there true new costs of doing business.If that is indeed true,I suspect the next few months could be rough.Or worse. Let's say you were buying steel at $5.00/lb.And let's say the cost goes to $20.00/lb.,and your manufacturing process uses 1 million pounds a year.So since your stuff is made of steel you suck it up,and try not pass all that increase down the line.(at least not all at once)And now opps!steel is now $4.00/lb.But I paid $20.00 for the stuff I made....I know of some companys that are sorta sweatin' that senario right now from what I have herd...(think steel pipe,sheetmetal fittings,grill's 'n' registars,etc.)And now I was just think'in,What if say you were some other outside entente,and you waited for this to happen,and than flooded the market with your now lower cost goods while others sat with there overpriced lot....

Tom_35

Carrier pricing

We had our last increase the first of November and have not heard anything for the Spring yet, but figure it is coming.

Just signed up with Maytag though. We had been giving Carrier 95% of our business and our suppliers seemed to have their inventories at the level they needed to be. We just decided not to be tied into a single source.

I can't imagine how Weezbo keeps his wits in dealing with suppliers like he mentioned.

Tom A

Leo G_99

China

is supposed to have four new steel mills on line by the summer. They will then be net exporters of steel.

Leo G