Product category:
Industrial Motors
News Release from: Rotor (UK)
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 12 May 2006
Is there a case for a copper surcharge?
Jerry Hodek, Managing Director of Rotor UK questions when increasing raw materials prices will affect the price of electric motors.
Readers will be aware that the prices of raw materials have rocketed up with an unprecedented speed in the past few months, and motor manufacturers in some Continental European countries have now introduced copper surcharges for their customers We know that in the cable business copper premiums according to the LME (London Metal Exchange) have been quoted for years and we have all, in the past few years, accepted fuel surcharges from general hauliers, airlines and even ferries
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 30 Apr 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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The fuel surcharges which crop up on our bills when we book our flights and trips abroad through the Internet or travel agent are no longer regarded as a surprise.
The question is whether a similar surcharge will become the norm in the electric motors business in the foreseeable future.
The next question of course would be whether these surcharges would ever come off our bills should the prices of fuel and copper drop back to what we would consider the normal level.
The truth is that the current prices of raw materials have increased significantly (due to increased demand, more difficult to extract ores etc) and it is not only copper which is of deep concern but also aluminium and steel laminations, all of which are crucial for electric motor manufacturing.
Which motor manufacturer will be the first to introduce copper surcharges to the UK electric motor market? We are not sure yet but we know many manufacturers have intimated imminent increases.
What we can however predict is that when it happens all the other manufacturers will soon follow suit.
I have no doubt in my mind about that.
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