Aluminum Oxide - Stabilized?

A couple of months ago I put a post explaining some of the basics of Aluminum Oxide Grit. What I did not mention was that the ore that is used as the source for Aluminum Oxide is sourced from around the world. While a lot of the crude material is actually refined and processed in the US, it still needs to be shipped around the world.

Increasing crude costs mostly due to increased demand from developing countries (read: China) have combined perfectly with increasing shipping costs and the decreasing US dollar to produce price increases like we have never seen. In some cases, the cost to source, ship, refine and package Aluminum Oxide has doubled in the past couple of years.

Fortunately, it seems that some of the cost pressures are stabilizing so that pricing for Aluminum Oxide may soon fall back into the historical pricing pattern. I only hope that is sooner rather than later.

It's the Economy!

The economy has been getting a lot of attention as the presidential candidates and Congress argue about the best way to 'fix' it. While all these macro-economics discussions are interesting on a "micro" level we continue to see inflationary pressure on our raw materials.

It seems that every new year brings a new round of price increases from our suppliers (along with a cheery 'Happy New Year'). We are analyzing everything we are doing to minimize the effect for our customers. So far, for most products we have been able to keep any increases to a selective few products.

2008 should end up being an exciting year and we will continue to work hard to do things Right From The Start!