WILMINGTON, Del., Jan. 25, 2001 (BUSINESS WIRE)—BetzDearborn, a division of Hercules Incorporated (NYSE:HPC), today announced that it will be implementing price increases effective March 1 for many of its products used in treating water, wastewater and process systems.
The increase will affect industrial, commercial and institutional customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. The amount of the increase will vary regionally with local costs.
"Our business has always focused on helping customers hold down expenses," said John Panichella, vice president, North America, for BetzDearborn, "but we can no longer continue to absorb the steeply rising cost of the raw materials and energy we use, as well as increases in shipping costs and fuel surcharges, without it affecting our ability to provide quality products and services."
Panichella noted that the costs of the raw materials used in the company's major product lines had increased significantly last year. Caustic was up 110%. Increases of 15.5% for propylene, 50% for methanol, 12% for crude oil and 105% for natural gas drove increases in other raw materials. Fuel surcharges have reached as high as 10.5%.
"Many of these increases are coming on top of similar price hikes in 1999, and we don't expect any relief in the near future," said Panichella.
BetzDearborn's specialty chemicals and engineered programs are utilized worldwide in a variety of applications to help customers solve productivity and quality problems, reduce operating costs and meet environmental requirements, with particular emphasis on the chemical, automotive, food, mineral processing, petroleum refining, pharmaceutical, primary metals, power, and microelectronics industries.
Hercules Incorporated, headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, is a global manufacturer of chemical specialties used in making a variety of products for home, office and industrial markets.
