CONTINUED CLOSURES & CAPACITY REDUCTION
As foundries such as Grede close plants and Intermet liquidates, they place their customer’s supply line at risk. Now more then ever buyers need to look at their suppliers, and honestly evaluate their longevity. Suppliers continue to consolidate, which can lead to transferred tooling, resubmitting samples, additional freight costs, and other costly delays. UNICAST STANDS READY.
UNICAST UPDATES WEBSITE
Unicast is pleased to announce that we will be launching our new website by next Friday, September 25th 2009. We have added content, updated information about our capabilities, and plan on using our website as a spring-board to open communication and share vital information with our customers 24 hours a day.
The initial update next week is only the beginning. We are working with our design team and software vendor on establishing unique customer login screens, where customers can get current pricing, check inventory, and print a current statement to see the status of credits and invoices. We look forward to any feedback you may have on how we can continue to help you get the information you need in a timely manner.
COMMODITIES & CRB INDEX
While many commodities hit an all time high in 2008, as the current economic slowdown spread throughout manufacturing commodity pricing slipped, reaching a low this past April. Unfortunately many commodities have begun to move back up, causing the CRB index to increase by 23.8% in the last 5 months.
Unicast has worked hard and continually reduced our surcharge throughout the year, at a time when all other foundries are increasing their surcharge. In addition, as surcharges bottom and begin to head back up you should consult your suppliers and ask that they embed the remnants of the remaining surcharge, establishing a new base year. This will allow you to closely monitor any moves upward against an index of surcharge components such as what Unicast can provide in our surcharge primer. If consultations are ineffective you should demand a new base year.
