More price hikes hit public sector
West Chester, Ohio-based Contech Construction Products and Muscatine, Iowa-based Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions (BBTS) have announced price increases for products that local and state governments often buy.
Contech boosted prices by 10 percent for all of its steel products, effective March 1. “Steel prices continue their steep incline as we have seen increases of nearly 50 percent since November,” said Steve Spanagel, president of Contech Sales. “The rising cost of raw materials used to produce steel and the increased demand for carbon steel products continue to be the primary reasons for the escalation. As always, our goal is to have a minimum impact on our customers, while recovering the increases we have felt in raw material costs.”
Contech Construction Products provides site solution products and services to the civil engineering industry. The company’s product portfolio includes bridges, drainage, retaining walls, sanitary sewer, stormwater, erosion control, and soil stabilization products and services. The company has 50 offices nationwide.
BBTS, a division of Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, recently announced a 12 percent price increase on its Bridgestone and Firestone brand truck and bus radial tires.
“Unfortunately, severely escalating raw material costs, as well as energy and other costs related to manufacturing, have made a price increase of this level unavoidable,” said Kurt Danielson, president of BBTS.
BBTS manufactures, markets and sells medium and heavy-duty truck tires for the original equipment and replacement markets in North America. Bandag manufactures retreading materials and equipment for its dealer network, which produces and markets retreaded tires and provides tire management services at more than 1,600 locations in North America.
The recent price hikes mirror price trends reported in American City & County’s Municipal Cost Index. For February, the costs of goods and services purchased by local governments increased 0.4 percent over January, according to the index. The February 2011 Municipal Cost Index value of 215.9 is 3.4 percent higher than last year. Go here for February 2011 index data.
