Elnur Amikishiyev
Editor's Note: In September APDSP sponsored a panel discussion about media and equipment prices and supply (click here to read highlights of that discussion). Prices of media have continued to cause grief since then, so we reached out to Dan O'Malley from RB Converting, one of the panelists, and asked him for an update. This is what he wrote.
Thank you so much for reaching out. The mills; all of them, the ones we use, the ones Sihl-Dietzgen use, and the ones TST use all have passed along increases, the latest effective in February.
Our mill reps tell us paper may go up 20% or more before the year is over. We just received increases from our film manufacturers as well. I have never seen this many increases before. Just a few short years ago, the street price for a roll of 36 x 500’ bond paper was $15 per roll. Today a good price is $27 (boxed) and rising.
When you had us all on Zoom a couple months ago, I mentioned that the paper mills didn’t want to make bond paper any more. Just the other day a mill rep told us that they were going to continue to reduce bond production and encouraged us to look toward imports.
It’s not all gloom and doom though. We still have and will continue to have more than enough paper to manufacture for the bond paper buying public. The problem is that prices will continue to rise steadily.
We are looking at global supply channels to add to the bond portfolio. Currently, we are testing materials from Brazil and Asia as well as some sources in Europe. Once we the manufacturers/converters develop additional raw material sources the market will stabilize.
The industry we’re in is a reflection of the world around us. Customers understand that. They go to the grocery, buy gas, buy automobiles and other goods that continue to increase in price seemingly on a daily basis. We are no different.
The good news is that the economy is still good. We just have to get used to continual price adjustments.
Dan O’Malley
RB Converting
Direct Line: 614.204.2995