Relentless Rise in Costs

Earlier today Dow Chemical announced that they will raise prices by as much as 25 percent in July, the largest increase in company history and the second in two months, to recoup surging energy and raw-material costs.

Dow also took additional measures to balance costs incurred by adding significant fuel surcharges of $300 per truck shipment and $600 by rail shipment and also by idling or cutting production in some of its manufacturing plants.

Chairman and Chief Executive Andrew Liveris said in a statement that the steps are "extremely unwelcome but entirely unavoidable" as global energy costs surge.

“The price increases we announced on May 28 helped, but they were not enough to fully cover the additional costs we are now facing,” he said.

“Even since our last announcement, the cost of hydrocarbons has continued to rise, and that trajectory shows no sign of changing. We must restore margins in our businesses, both through price increases and the reduction of operating costs at certain production facilities.”

As previously communicated, all of Arrow's major suppliers have instituted record breaking price increases. Regrettably, increases continue with each passing month. Our efforts to reduce and delay cost increases on critical raw materials have had limited success.

With this continued unsettling news, we want you to be informed that not only have all of the projected cost increases come to fruition, the predictions of further increases continue.

We urge you to share this information with your employees and customers, and alert them to the inevitability of price increases on all of the products they are buying.