Plate price hike hits Australia & NZ

The new prices will be effective from January 31st, with rises in the range of 5 to 7.5 per cent. Affected products include conventional plates, digital plates, camera films and recording films.

Steve Green, managing director of Kodak GCG in Australia and NZ, insists Kodak has for months absorbed increases in raw materials and energy, coupled with the fact that the cost of ancillary components (labour, packaging and transportation) are also tied to the escalating energy costs. He attributes much of the rise to a steady increase in worldwide demand.

“Over the past two years, the price of aluminium has steadily increased. Furthermore, with the growing worldwide demand for aluminium, we expect this trend of rising cost to continue,” said Green.

“Consequently, the combination of increased raw material costs, tightening aluminium supplies and rising energy costs, has led us to the necessary step of raising our prices, and we trust our customers will understand. These increases will ensure we continue to deliver the kind of service our valued customers can rely on.”

Garry Muratore, regional marketing manager at Agfa, claims the company has no plans for immediate price rises, though an increase is possible later in the year.

“Agfa are no different to other plate manufacturers and are being hurt by rising aluminium and energy pricing,” says Muratore. “Although an immediate price rise has been negated, continuing escalation of raw material costs in 2006 may force us to adjust local pricing in the medium to longer term.”

On the other hand, Peter Carrigan, chief executive at FujiFilm GSA, claims the company has no plans to raise the price of its prepress consumables.

“We have no intentions at this stage to raise prices, there is currently nothing in the pipeline as far as that goes,” says Carrigan.