All the industrial gas producers are revising their prices of whole products, following the price hike of energies represented by electricity and also fixed costs alike.

While the price hike is taking place in the gas-related equipment like cylinder and valves, the prices of SPG supplying devices for semiconductor production are also rising due to the increasing cost of steel and metal.

However, it seems that only a few of the industrial gas producers and the related equipment manufacturers have officially announced their price revision, while chemical product manufacturers are nearly every day informing the detail like a hike percentage of their price revisions openly.
For example, from March to April, they in fact raised almost all their products including liquid chlorine, ammonium nitrate, MMA monomer, POVAL, various films, PVC, ammonia, ethylene glycol, polyurethane and silicone.

As for equipment manufacturers, Kitz of valve major disclosed to raise their prices of bronze valves by 5 to 10% and stainless-steel valves by 15 to 20% effective for delivery from April 1.

In terms of materials, NIPPON STEEL Stainless Steel announced its data of the price revision of its products. According to the announcement, the selling price of contracted nickel metals (SUS304) for April deliveries increased by 65,000 yen per ton compared with the previous month. It was attributed mainly to the price hike of nickel (Ni).

All the manufacturers have a common reason of the price revision of “Due to the souring price of material or auxiliary materials and energies.”
In fact, they cannot make any profit without price revisions. From that viewpoint, the air gases like oxygen, nitrogen and argon produced by air-separation devices can be said to a mass of electricity. The nine electric companies are implementing their price revision one after another though the percentage differs depending on the company.

Those who use tank trucks to transport liquid gases using light oil are suffering from the continuous piling up of transportation cost together with the accelerated shortage of drivers. In case of tank trucks transporting separate cylinders, there is nothing different. Either driver or delivery person is running short. It follows that working hours must be saved.

In the industrial gases there might well be various differences in conditions such as their packing style, customer’s consumption of gas and the backup liquid delivery for onsite supply. In this case, however, there is no other choice than increasing prices.

A certain top management of industrial gas company says, “It is indispensable to take an attitude to negotiate on equal terms with customers for an appropriate reason to raise a price. For the sake of a stable supply of industrial gases, there is nothing more important than securing reasonable profits to keep on doing the business.”