Ferro boosts prices for porcelain enamel products
Cost push comes from titanium dioxide, nickel, cobalt
By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 9/10/2008 1:48:00 PM
Ferro has announced 6-12% price increases for porcelain enamel products sold in North America, noting that the cost of key raw materials and energy used in production have increased significantly--with titanium dioxide prices still escalating rapidly.Ferro says in a statement that surcharges will also remain in effect for nickel and cobalt as long as these alloying metal prices remain volatile.
“Even with our product reformulations and substitutions and supply chain management efforts, we are unable to offset raw material, transportation and energy costs enough to avoid implementing porcelain enamel price increases this year,” notes Lee Gauthier, the Cleveland company’s North American business director for inorganic specialties.
Ferro is the world's leading supplier of porcelain enamel, a glass that is bonded to metal (generally carbon steel, stainless steel, cast iron or aluminum) at temperatures from 1000° to 1600° Fahrenheit. Porcelain enamel is a sanitary finish on large and small appliances, cookware and grills, sanitary ware, water heaters, building panels, signage and chemical storage vessels.
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