IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMMODITY CRISIS.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMMODITY CRISIS.

Dear Customer,

We thank you for your renewed interest in our range of solid wood street furniture for our range of timber clad crash barriers for which you will find the attached quotation.

We would like to inform you about an unprecedented crisis on our raw materials: steel and solid wood are severely impacted since November 2020.

The current dynamics of the wood market are continuous. Low availability, long delivery times and constantly rising prices for the raw material have almost become the norm. The reasons are many.

Exports from the European wood industry to the United States have increased dramatically in the last 8 months. The Americans are now turning to Europe, as they are in open conflict with Canada, their long-time primary supplier. In addition, demand from emerging countries is growing.

Moreover, as the bark beetle infestation on our European forests shows, almost every facet of climate change has a direct impact on our forests. This affects the quality and availability of wood in the first place and finally the price.

It is therefore more necessary than ever to design forestry in a sustainable and future-oriented way, and this is what we do on a daily basis with our logging and sawing partners.

Regarding steel, the Syndicat des Équipements de la Route (SER), of which SOLOSAR is a member, has been reporting since January on the sharp rise in steel prices: +50% since autumn 2020!

Find below the article of the SER (Syndicats des Equipements de la Route) on the increase of raw material prices

The sharp rise in prices has therefore also been accompanied by a scarcity of products or even a shortage.

We have gone from almost immediate availability to longer delivery times. Here we are dependent on the shutdown of the blast furnaces during the 2020 containment, but also on the decision of the steelmakers not to restart them afterwards. No return to normal is expected at this time.

The consequences are more fluctuating prices, longer product delivery times and shorter price validities.

Under these extreme conditions, we at SOLOSAR are doing our utmost to mitigate their effects by keeping larger stocks of semi-finished and finished products at our production site and by anticipating our customers' expectations.

We have chosen to offer you acceptable delivery times of 3 to 4 weeks for custom-made products and price validations of 30 days maximum.

Our sales network is naturally at your disposal to discuss these concerns with you.