Waldkraiburg, July 2008. KRAIBURG TPE's suppliers react to the recent price explosion of raw materials with further drastic price increases. The company cannot avoid this development and therefore, it is urged to adjust its prices 0,19€/kg with effect from 1st August 2008 in order to compensate the increased raw material costs.

Besides higher costs for personnel, logistics and energy, prices for raw materials used in our company have dramatically increased since the beginning of the year. 

A major part of KRAIBURG's raw materials is based on petrochemical basic materials and is thus much dependent on the development of the crude oil prices. Since January 2008, these prices have increased more than 40 %. Currently, you cannot expect an easing of the market situation. According to the OPEC president Khelil, a crude oil price of more than 170 USD per barrel cannot be excluded for the second half of the year. The products made of crude oil, such as for example naphtha, follow this general trend.

The prices for SEBS (styrene ethylene butylene block copolymer), one of the main components of our products, have increased approx. 10 % in the course of this year as a consequence of the higher prices for the monomers styrene and butadiene. In this connection, a global scarcity and the resulting supply shortages of butadiene make the situation even more difficult and put additional pressure on the market price.

The process oils, which are necessary to make the TPEs soft, are especially affected by the current price development. These kind of raw materials are components which directly depend on crude oil. Therefore, we have a price increase of more than 20 % for process oils since January.

Even the cost-oriented purchase department of the company is no longer able to avoid this continuous increase. If the demanded market prices are not being followed, even supply shortfalls will threaten. These are the reasons why KRAIBURG TPE has decided to align the expenses and the prices.

Of course, KRAIBURG TPE will use all the internal possibilities to save costs in order to keep the prices as constant as possible for. However, due to the current market turbulences, further changes cannot be excluded. The development remains to be seen. 

About KRAIBURG TPE
KRAIBURG TPE is a global producer of thermoplastic elastomers based on hydrated styrene block copolymers (HSBC). As well as customer-specific solutions the company also offers a broad range of standardised formulations for various areas of application under the brand name THERMOLAST®. KRAIBURG TPE produces in Germany, Malaysia and the USA and has sales offices in Britain, France, Italy, Spain, China and India.

Contact:
KRAIBURG TPE GmbH & Co. KG
Lars Goldmann
Friedrich-Schmidt-Strasse 2
84478 Waldkraiburg, Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 8638.61-278
Fax: +49 (0) 8638.61-472
Email: lars.goldmann@kraiburg-tpe.com
www.kraiburg-tpe.com