Our industry continues to face raw material price inflation. While the US economy has improved, new capacity to match the increased demand has not kept pace, creating shortages of key ingredients that go into adhesives and film resins. There have also been global events which have created additional shortages of the components that go into paper liner and facestocks. Here is a more detailed look at what is driving the raw material increases:

Paper and Pulp Cost Increases

• Paper and Pulp has increased by 57% in the past year to a record high of over $1000/ton for NBSK due to increased demand and declining supply
  • Chilean earthquake in February 2010 took 8% of the world’s pulp capacity offline for several months
  • Labor strikes in Europe taking additional capacity offline
  • Increased global demand for China
  • Decline in North American paper capacity (2008-2009)
• Platinum costs up 17% YTD, Silicon metal up 30% YTD – these are key ingredients in making silicone release liners
• Continuing impact of elimination of “black liquor” tax credits

Films and Adhesives Cost Increases

• Propylene monomer (a key component in adhesives) up 33% YTD
• Strong global demand putting adhesive components on allocation from key chemical suppliers BASF, Dow, etc.
• Polyester film shortage expected with the shutdown of DuPont’s Florence facility

Due to these cost increases, industry leaders like Zebra & Datamax will be increasing their pricing on most media consumables between 4%-7% on August 2, 2010. New costs on custom media quotes will be phased in as they take effect in June and July.

The best strategy for you is to place as many orders as possible NOW; this will ensure that you receive the best possible pricing before the increases take effect.

You are probably asking yourself what can A Bar Code Business, Inc. do to provide any type of defense to these increases?  There is really not that much we can do to stem the rising material costs.  The increases are industry wide and we have heard from a number of our suppliers that the increases have to be passed through because of their narrow margins.  However we do have program that may allow you to maintain a price very near to what you are paying now by taking advantage of quantity discounts.

A Bar Code Business, Inc. is prepared to offer you a 90 Day Make & Hold Program that will allow you to take advantage of volume discounts without tying up your warehouse or working capital.  We’ll run the quarterly volume and store it in our climate controlled warehouse. You can then take it (and pay for it) as you need it within the 90 day period.

We will do our best to keep our pricing as low as possible and still continue to give you the quality and service that you have come to expect from A Bar Code Business, Inc.  We value your business and look forward to hearing from you in the future. Please contact us at 800-644-0077 to order your labels now or if additional information is needed regarding these changes.

On June 26, 1974, a checkout clerk ran a pack of Juicy Fruit gum over a ‘Model A’ bar code scanner at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio. When the cash register automatically displayed the price of the gum, the bar code era was born.

Now thirty-six years later, billions of bar codes are scanned each day around the world. You’ll find bar codes on everything from airport luggage tags and plane tickets to books, groceries, driver licenses and ID badges. Bar codes are also utilized in healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, warehouses, docks and courier shipping.

Bar codes and scanners continue to evolve. Increasingly, bar codes are used to deliver promotions, discount vouchers, tickets and loyalty schemes via mobile phones. Of course, reading bar codes from mobile phones requires linear imaging technology, an expertise of Datalogic Scanning.

After thirty-six years, Datalogic Scanning continues to provide diverse markets with innovative, leading-edge bar code readers which improve upon and create new applications for bar codes.

Datamax has recently experienced significant increases in the cost of paper, synthetics, adhesives, silicone, and film products as well as other material resources used to manufacture theri products. As a result, Datamax-O’Neil will adjust its prices effective August 1, 2010. Prices for these products will reflect a 5 to 7 percent increase. Orders placed prior to August 1st, 2010 will receive current pricing.

Effective September 30, 2010, some of the portable printer models which were recently acquired with the assets of the Extech Data Systems Division will be discontinued. The S2500THS will be replaced with the Apex 2 or S1500T and the S4500THS will be replaced with the Apex 4 or S4000T. In addition, the Atlas 3, Atlas 4, Andes 3L will be discontinued.

If you have any questions or concerns about this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us at 800-644-0077 OR sales@abarcodebusiness.com.

The Gryphon I GM4100 Base Station is now available in a model with Counterfeit Money/ID Document detection.

The European Central Bank recovered 447,000 counterfeit banknotes June-Dec 2009 worth EURO 25,479,0000. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development estimates counterfeiting and product piracy costs the world’s economies $USD 250 billion annually.

The new Datalogic Scanning solution will offer the same features as the standard Gryphon GM4010 Base Station, plus it will provide a simple solution to verify authenticity of Bank Notes and ID Documents, as well as the ability to detect a variety of key identifiers on any currency or document. This will allow the use of the scanner for additional activities besides data capture and provides additional savings to our customers in terms of:

• The cost of an additional device for this purpose
• Highly valuable counter space
• Electronic detection for counterfeit currency, which has been up to the user to visually search for flaws in the currency

The BC4010 Gryphon Base Station is available with a UV Counterfeit Detector, typically used to verify the authenticity of Bank Notes. Other uses for the counterfeit detection include verifications on Passports, Travel Tickets, Credit Cards, Travelers Checks, Event Tickets and similar applications where it is possible to detect fluorescent marks using a UV light.

Contact us today to find out more about the new Gryphon I GM4100 Base Station with New Anti-Counterfeit Feature from Datalogic Scanning.