Steel Force Majeure
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Steel Force Majeure…
Dear Valued Customer;
As the “Leading Importer of Coil Roofing” in the US today, we take our role seriously. We know that you, our customers, depend on us for quality product, timely delivery and accurate market information. While we were the ones to get out in front of the unprecedented spike in steel prices and set a policy to assure no production interruptions, we have had a week to wrap our arms around this situation. I know many plants have stopped production and refuse to produce orders for some of the other nail importers. In our case, by having our own CMI Staff on the ground, he met with each of our plants and we have continued to produce as is required to meet our customer’s needs.
Steel prices have stabilized, and in some cases given back a small portion of the hyper run-up. We feel comfortable rescinding the PTS and going back to giving delivered pricing. There is still an excess steel surcharge but we do not believe that it will effect new orders being booked for our current August shipping time frame. In fact as we have calculated all the surcharges for May/ June shipments in all cases the landed costs will still be much lower than recent and current placed orders. This mostly impacts orders placed prior to March 31.
We recognize the importance of our customers having a cost to place on their po’s even if they are not final. Therefore, effective with orders May 14th we have once again begun providing firm delivered pricing with the following polices intact:
FREIGHT FORCE MAJEURE – This remains unchanged and will continue to be exercised if the freight to move your container costs 5% more than when your order was booked. Recent shipments have seen freight in some cases exceed $15,000 to move a container that typically was $6,000. Container supply is still very tight and no signs of letting up.
EXCESS STEEL COST FORCE MAJEURE – In order to give best guess accurate delivered pricing we will revert to quoting off of today’s high freight rates and current cost of nails based on the current posted steel price of 6000 RMB. This number is verified and published twice a day for verification. As we do on freight, we will absorb any increase within a 5% band width. So if steel remains below 6300 RMB there will be no surcharge. If we need to invoke the surcharge we will contact you for approval and give you the option of taking the material.
In full transparency, we believe this is unlikely and the run-up should be level for cost going forward for the immediate timeframe. Additionally we think the highest surcharges will be on the May/ June shipments. Instead of setting price for July and going forward we have worked with the production facilities to watch this carefully and review it weekly to make sure we keep your costs in line.
Rest assured we are 100% committed to the same quality and timely delivery you have grown to depend from CMI. Certain delays cannot be avoided as steamship lines have gotten very choosey over which areas they want to take containers for over other areas.
Please call me directly if you need any clarity or want to discuss this subject.
Continental Materials, Inc. (CMI) is a national supplier of roofing system component materials and known for BUR (built-up roofing) asphalt with “No Smell”™ odor eliminating technology and its WeatherSeal™ protective packaging, All-Weather™ asphalt felts and coated organic rolls, CMI All-Weather™ modified bitumen rolls, SureGrip™ construction fasteners and roofing nails, Continental’s eco-friendly high density fiberboard roof insulation board and a premium line of SecureGrip™ synthetic roof underlayment products that are sold and used widely throughout the country. CMI has provided value added products and superior service to the roofing industry since 1958.
For more information on CMI products, call (215) 884-4930, visit www.continentalmaterials.com or contact your local CMI Sales Representative.