While the impact of COVID-19 has certainly affected operations, with required changes to production, personnel and protective equipment requirements, it is not just pandemic-related causes that are driving increased costs and shipping delays.
The raw material supply chain has been dramatically impacted, and not only by the well-understood changes to production dynamics that came from the ongoing pandemic. While many operations shut down or saw reduced capabilities at the height of the pandemic, this loss in production tells only part of the story. As operations began to resume in the summer and fall of 2020, manufacturers quickly outpaced the available product supply or production ability of suppliers, beginning a run on prices as demand rose faster than availability. This has only continued as producers of raw material struggle to keep apace with demand, leading to a steadily bloating increase in costs as businesses struggle to secure the volume of material needed for their operations.