Insider has heard from a number of print suppliers that they are facing some serious headwinds.

Multiple factors are involved which are leading to higher printing costs.

As demand is returning to pre-COVID levels, the world is experiencing tight supply as companies downshifted during the pandemic and depleted inventories. Near-record supply chain disruptions have led to massive shortages and the fastest rise in global input prices since August 2008.

The US Government reported that a measure of underlying inflation, tracked by the Federal Reserve for its 2% target, accelerated 3.1% on a year-on-year basis in May, the biggest increase since July 1992. These inflationary pressures are affecting raw materials, logistics, and labor costs and are likely to continue through during second half of 2021.

Labor is scarce despite nearly 10 million Americans being officially unemployed. Generous unemployment benefits funded by the government, problems with childcare and fears of contracting the virus, even with vaccines widely accessible, as well as pandemic-related retirements have been blamed for keeping workers home.

Part of the struggle for labor is that manufacturers face heavy competition for entry-level talent from warehouse and distribution centers that are feeding the e-commerce boom led by brand names like Amazon.

One of the impacts to OOH printers on the labor shortage is reportedly manifesting in longer turn times for production.

Finally, there is a worldwide supply chain shortage for plastics, especially for PVC flex and sticky back. Cooley and 3M are major suppliers of PVC to OOH printers in the US, and they are having reported shortages and price increases which are being passed on to printing companies.

Insider provides this update to increase awareness that this phenomenon is widespread across most printers we talk to and warrants some extra consideration and empathy for our printing partners who are in a tight spot as our industry comes back from a tough year.

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