2nd Round of Film Price Hikes - Kodak & Fuji

[bmattock]

Actually, I am not entirely sure this is a second round - or a clarification of the first rounds. But Kodak announced their price hike well over a month ago - Fuji last week. Now both are back in the news - either old news being re-release, new price hikes, or clarifications. So just FYI - Fuji says price hikes could be as high as 20%.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/tm.site/news/BREAKING NEWS/261005/

(RTTNews) - Eastman Kodak Company (EK | charts | news | PowerRating) said that it would increase prices on its range of consumer and professional silver halide-based photographic papers and processing chemistry on a worldwide basis.

Specifics would vary on a product-by-product and market-by-market basis with most prices increasing between 4% and 10%. Certain products and markets would see higher price increases.

Over the past several years, Kodak has been absorbing unrelenting increases in the costs of raw materials used to manufacture photographic paper and chemistry.

In most countries, the price increase is effective with orders shipped on or after July 1.

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And...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/21/bloomberg/bxecon.php

Fuji Photo Film, Japan's biggest film maker, said last week that it would raise prices on photographic film and other products by as much 20 percent to cover increasing costs for silver, oil and other raw materials. The increase, the biggest since 1980, follows a price rise of as much as 17 percent by Eastman Kodak, the world's biggest film maker.

So anyway, consider this in the nature of an FYI - might do well to buy your preferred brand of film now rather than later.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[boarini2003]

Not the best news in the world, but to be expected. The film market is going through a process of change, and most probably prices will rise to a certain level and then stay at that way indefinitely, since film will become more of a niche item.

 

[Ash]

So film is becoming more and more of an expensive option?

As digital prices continue to plummet, this is surely going to prompt a lot more of a transition to digital when people can't find yet higher prices of film financially viable

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Soon we'll have 'German'* Leica film and Chinese Lucky film only.


*Leica maunufactured in China.

 

[Ash]

mmm... ilford is going down the pan (no pun intended)as well, so I'll have to stock up soon on their b&w before it becomes "collectible" to own a roll of 35mm film, and costs £30 for a 36exp

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

With material costs rising the way they have been over the years, I have expected rising prices on most goods.

Sounds as though Kodak and Fuji have been shouldering the inflation as part of their operational overhead. Could a price increase help keep these companies in the business of film manufacture?

Something occured to me this past weekend regarding the transition to digital. It may seem like digital can be more cost effective. But, there are consumables associated with it as well - inks, papers and digital media such as disks. These aren't cheap and are often made from limited resources as well. I'm betting the prices there won't continue to plummet