On the heels of a price increase announcement by Airgas, Rohm and Haas Company, Philadelphia, PA, said it is also seeking price increases for most of its chemical products, effective Nov. 1, 2007. Increases will range from 5% to 15%.
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The costs of key raw materials -such as propylene, ethylene, methanol, as well as other raw materials like tin -have remained persistently high,” said Pierre Brondeau, executive vice president in charge of Specialty Materials. “Earlier in the year, there were strong indications that raw material prices would peak around mid-year, and then trail off during the second half of 2007. Given these expectations, we did whatever we could to use internal controls to mitigate the impact of the cost increases to Rohm and Haas, and selectively sought price increases in extreme conditions.
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“However, raw material prices have not come down. In fact, they have continued to increase and have remained persistently high, with no real relief expected in the near future.”
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Brondeau says that, to date, the increases have added more than $100 million to the supplier’s raw material costs.
Rohm & Haas had sales of $8.2 billion in the latest fiscal year.