Klöckner Pentaplast Packaging Europe ‘forced’ to announce price increases
The company, which produces films for packaging, printing, and specialty products for the food and beverage industry, among others, claims the reason behind the move is because it has seen significant price increases in many of its raw materials, including PVC, PET, PP, PS and PE.
Driven by obtaining supply in Western Europe
Giles Peacock, group senior VP, Packaging and Specialties, Europe and Asia, Klöckner Pentaplast told FoodProductionDaily, the price shifts are far in excess of oil related increases; they are driven by the difficulty of obtaining supply in Western Europe, due to a wave of force majeure declarations by some of the leading EU polymer suppliers.
As a result, he said it has led to a significant shortage of material on the Western European market that requires additional expenses in the provision of raw materials and the supply situation is currently not back to normal.
“Unfortunately, Klöckner Pentaplast was forced to increase the prices, effective June 1, due to the tight supply situation of raw material in Western Europe,” he said.
“Price increases are always a difficult decision as we recognise the importance of cost of our product within our customers value chain and we also need to ensure we act in a responsible manner towards our customers.”
Trying to counter cost increases with 'several internal measures'
He said the company is trying to counter cost increases with several internal measures and it is working on joint product optimization and performance improvement projects with customers and suppliers to keep cost in order.
“However, our efficiency efforts have only partially closed the gaps of the cost increase development,” added Peacock.
Klöckner Pentaplast is based in Montabaur, Germany, and has operations in 12 countries with 18 production sites.
Within the last financial year, the company had sales of over €1.194 bn and employs over 3,000 people worldwide.
