Flint Group Facing Raw Material Shortages

Flint Group (Plymouth, MI) announced that its division, Flint CPS Inks, plans to implement selective price increases to assure sufficient coverage of raw material cost increases. The cost increases are needed to ensure availability of raw materials that are essential for manufacturing high quality products.

Raw material availability and the cost of raw materials for oil-based products like ink is likely to be an issue as the supplier base narrows and refocuses capacity and investments to other industry segments, according to a statement released by Flint Group. India and China are adopting stricter environmental regulations on pigments and base chemicals manufacturing, leading to factory closures, hence the reduced quantities available and increasing costs.

In addition, the statement goes on to say, although the price of oil is comparatively stable, refining capability for the solvents is more restricted leading to upward cost pressure. Transport costs are also rising, partially reflecting problems in obtaining drivers but also through truck utilization challenges due to lower customer transit volumes.

Michael Podd, chief procurement officer of Flint CPS Inks said, “Flint CPS Inks continues to manage the increasingly uncertain raw material situation through our established contracted priority supply of key raw materials. We also decrease our expenses annually through labor cost leadership, but in some fields it is impossible to completely mitigate these cost hikes, especially in a market that is seeing reduced demand.”

For more information, visit flintgrp.com.