Six Tips For Dealing With Rising Material Prices – Contracts and Commercial Law

Manufacturers face enormous business challenges today. According to the fourth quarter 2021 Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the top two are rising raw material costs and supply chain challenges. Other significant challenges that may affect the availability of materials include rising transportation and logistics costs, unfavorable business climates and trade uncertainties.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Here are six tips for addressing rising prices or decreasing availability of key manufacturing inputs:

1. Do Your Homework
   
   Just because a supplier informs you that a price increase is necessary because of increasing costs, supply chain issues or logistical challenges, that does not necessarily mean that the price hike is fair. Do your own research to assess the impact of these developments on supplier costs and determine an acceptable range of price increases.




2. Purchase Materials in Advance
   
   Recent experience has exposed the risks inherent in just-in-time manufacturing strategies. Stocking up on raw materials and key components can help you lock in current prices and avoid shortages. However, it is important to have a solid grasp of your material needs and consider storage costs and the impact on your cash flow.




3. Negotiate Long-Term Contracts
   Consider entering into long-term contracts with suppliers that lock in prices and guarantee availability and a certain level of quality for a specified time period. Suppliers have limited production capacity. Long-term contracts that focus solely on price can be problematic if a supplier decides to sell to your competitors at higher prices (or lower quality), leaving you without materials or parts to purchase.




4. Include Escalation Clauses in Your Contracts With Customers
   These clauses shift some of the risk to customers by providing for periodic price adjustments to reflect increasing or decreasing material costs. For simplicity, some clauses may be tied to cost-of-living or inflation rates.




5. Increase Your Own Prices
   
   Consider passing through some of your cost increases to your own customers by raising your prices. Be sure to carefully consider the impact of this strategy on your customers and to back up the reasonableness of the increase with general economic and supplier pricing data.




6. Be Flexible
   
   Look for creative ways to increase your company’s flexibility and agility. For example, seek alternate suppliers that offer more attractive pricing or can meet your needs in the event a regular supplier cannot deliver. Consider using suppliers that are closer to your facilities to reduce transportation costs or shifting production to locations that offer reduced costs or other advantages. Explore the possibility of switching to less expensive or more readily available parts or materials, provided doing so will not adversely affect the quality of your products.

According to the NAM survey, the top three strategies manufacturers are using to address supply chain disruptions are:

• Finding alternative or duplicative suppliers for some inputs;




• Increasing inventories of raw materials and other inputs; and




• Exploring more domestic US sourcing or production.

MAINTAIN STRONG RELATIONSHIPS

Whichever strategies you employ, it is critical to develop and maintain strong relationships with your suppliers and customers. Relationships based on transparency and solid communication will help you stay on top of developments that affect the availability and pricing of parts and materials and work toward solutions that benefit every partner on your supply chain.

Related Read: The Price Is Right: Implementing the Right Pricing Strategy

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.