Raw Materials: Acimac calls for immediate action to halt price rises

“The severe stress our industry is under will inevitably have consequences. We therefore call for urgent systemic action to prevent the spiralling production costs caused by the global situation and speculative behaviours from jeopardising the recovery and resilience of companies.”

With these words, Paolo Mongardi, Chairman of the Italian Ceramic Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers’ Association Acimac, made an appeal to the authorities and manufacturing chain stakeholders highlighting the difficulties facing the sector caused by the rising costs of raw materials, components and logistics and the global stress on supply chains.

The restarting of industrial plants at full capacity this summer coupled with the lack of stocks triggered a chain reaction that has led to a series of negative effects.

The most significant is the increase in prices of the raw materials used to construct machines, particularly steel. Others include the rising costs and slow deliveries of components and increased logistics costs, from pallets and boxes to the rise in maritime freight rates due to the bottleneck effect that continues to impact logistics and prices, including those of land transport.

Recent weeks have also seen a disproportionate rise in the energy costs of factories.

“If the situation fails to improve, many companies in our sector are at risk of collapse, which will make the post-pandemic recovery impossible and will have consequences for the entire supply chain in our production area,” warned Mongardi. “The Mecs Research Centre estimates that production costs have increased on average by 30%, a level that can no longer be absorbed by our companies without affecting their profitability. We hope that this warning will be rapidly heeded in order to invert the cost curve and allow for an economic recovery and a full return to production without additional hurdles, enabling us to overcome the pandemic crisis once and for all”.