Paint manufacturers increased prices by 8 per cent in January
For the second time this year, paint manufacturers have announced plans to increase paint prices by at least 10 per cent due to rising raw material costs.
Basco Paints and Crown Berger, who both control over 80 per cent of the market, have said they will increase their product prices by mid-April due to high raw material prices, weak shilling and rising fuel costs.
The review which comes three months after paint makers hiked prices by 8 per cent in January is expected to further inflate property prices as developers pass construction costs to the home buyers.
The prices of Oil and Titanium— which account for more than 60 per cent of the paint manufacturers’ production costs—have increased by about 33 and 10 per cent respectively thanks to a series of anti-government protests in the Middle East and North Africa.
Mr Gaurav Bhalla, the head of sales and marketing at Crown Berger told the media that production costs had increased by 20 per cent since the beginning of the year, leaving the company with no choice but to pass on that spiking cost to the consumers.
“Under these adverse conditions we are left with no other option but to effect a further price increase of 10 per cent effective April 15,” said Mr. Bhalla.
The price of Crown Berger’s paint products such as Crown Solo Vinyl Matt Emulsion and Crown Vinyl Matt Emulsion will increase to Sh10,910 and Sh10,180 respectively for the 20 litre containers from Sh9,819 and Sh9,162.
Basco Paint’s managing director, Kamlesh Shah, has said his company will increase prices of Duracoat Duraplast, Duracoat Vinyl Silk, Duracoat Viny Matt and Duracoat Supergloss by 10 per cent to offset the rising production costs.
“We are increasing our prices by 10 per cent by mid next month to offset the rising cost of production due to high raw materials costs and looming scarcity of ingredients such titanium dioxide (used to make pigments),” said Mr. Shah.
The prices of Duracoat Vinyl Matt and Duraplast will increase to Sh9,637 and Sh11,080 for the 20 litre containers from Sh8,761 and Sh10,073 respectively. Duracoat Vinyl Silk and Supergloss will go up to Sh10,383 and Sh11,421 for the 20 litre container respectively.
