Dupont confirms European price increases for ethylene copolymer resins

Dupont says that the price increases will be up to 15 per cent, depending on the grade of the material and will be implemented throughout the Europe, Middle East and Africa business region.

The price increases come on top of previous price increases that came into effect on January 1, 2011, and this new round are due to take effect at the beginning of April.

Dupont copolymer ethylene resins include the Surlyn resins for packaging and industrial applications, Bynel coextrudable adhesives, Selar PA amorphous polyamide barrier resins, Nucrel acid copolymers and Elvax EVA copolymers.

Raw materials and energy costs increase​

Prices have been increasing for cosmetics players across the board in recent months, with most companies citing the steady increase of raw materials as being the main factor.

One big contributing factor is the rising price of oil on the international markets. Earlier this month oil prices hit record levels the price of Brent Crude surpassed $110 a barrel, pushing up both transport costs and fossil-fuel derived commodities.

Earlier this year a survey of German packaging companies suggested that price increases are expected to be a distinguishing factor throughout the first quarter of 2011 and beyond.

The survey, carried out by the Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (IK) association, found that over 60 per cent of the association’s members said they expected higher prices for their packaging, on account of rising costs for plastics packaging and raw materials.

Underlining the energy costs, IK estimates that for the average member business using 18,000 megawatt hours, the recent price rises for electricity will add an extra €300,000 to the energy bill.

However, the survey also pointed out that most packaging companies questioned were hoping to successfully pass on the price increases to their customers on the back of positive economic development.