Rupee has tumbled down to all time low against dollar, which has pushed up the rates of entire range of imported materials. Formaldehyde prices reported to up more than 10%, has fuelled the input cost of entire plywood manufacturing, which has been reeling under pressure due to high timber prices and weak demand. Industry says that their cost of manufacturing
has gone up due high prices of all imported raw materials such as Formalin, Phenol, Melamine and Face Veneer.
Experts estimated that the plywood industry was expecting 6 to 8% prices hike due to high timber prices, however soaring prices of Formalin along with other chemicals have added another burden to their manufacturing cost, and they estimate the price increase up to 15 percent in present scenario.
Chemical importers view that Methanol prices have gone up higher level because of swelling prices of crude oil in international market, which may go up further. The high dollar against rupee has fuelled to another burden on prices, and they don’t expect any relief in coming 2-3 months. Due to high Methanol, the Formalin price might go up above 15% high by end of October.
Reports from plywood manufacturing sector hints that manufacturers are on alert mode, and not willing to receive new order because they estimate that the old rates are not viable in present situation. In that scenario, they may suffer high loss if they receive fresh orders on old rates, although they are dispatching old orders and have cut down on production.
On the other side, film faced shuttering plywood manufacturers are looking at increasing prices by 10 percent due to high phenol prices with immediate effect.