Supply Chain Issues & The Heat Treatment Industry-Suppliers Respond

“The Monty Heat Treat News” has launched a series of articles about the well known global supply chain issues, a series which will include comments from many of the industry’s suppliers. Our first response of many comes from Mr. Steve Thompson, CEO of controls company SSi of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

“In the last 8 months all materials from specialty washers, to PLC components, to computers and of course microchips have been impacted by strong demand, supply issues or both.  We have been notified of deliveries that stretch to 2023 on some electronic components.  We have found ourselves looking past some component and material price increases as we manage our anxiety of not having something available for our customers.  During the latter part of last year we started to increase inventory levels and have made a very large investment in the past six months to leave us in a favorable position when it comes to supplying our products.   In fact we are now warehousing a years’ worth of inventory in preparation of what we believe will be a multiyear crisis caused by supply issues and high demand. The blanket orders we are preparing in the final quarter of this year are for 2023.   I do believe the day will come when we will all be standing around looking at shelves full of stuff we need to sell.   Just not sure when that day will be.  Needless to say we are all in it together. Stephen Thompson, CEO”

“Supply Chain Issues & The Heat Treatment Industry

I don’t believe I am overstating it when I make the unconditional statement that the global heat treatment industry is seeing unprecedented challenges and changes these days. We all know the root cause, disruptions caused by the COVID 19 pandemic and we see on a daily basis how it has effected the worldwide supply chain. There can be no better example of this than the auto industry and the “chip” shortage which has caused a dramatic slowdown in vehicle production (“The Monty Heat Treat News” has covered this topic in the past, an article entitled  “Automotive Slow Down to Significantly Hurt Captive & Commercial Heat Treaters” can be found at Automotive Slow Down to Significantly Hurt Captive & Commercial Heat Treaters | The Monty).

So what are these supply chain issues and how have they challenged the industry in terms of pricing and deliveries? Over the course of the next few weeks “The Monty Heat Treat News” is going to look at some of these issues and with the help of a number of industry suppliers we are going to see what we can expect in terms of price increases and longer deliveries. Subjects we will be looking at include;

• commodity pricing
• shipping costs
• delivery times
• labor challenges
• energy pricing

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