April 14, 2021

• Shipping Logjams Spread on Crush of Imports – Wall Street Journal
• U.S. manufacturers grapple with steel shortages, soaring prices – Reuters
• Toyota, Honda Shut U.S. Factories as Supplies Run Short – Wall Street Journal
• Shortages of 40-foot steel shipping containers has mixed up global supply chains for commodities, hiking prices for some raw materials – Spend Matters
• And from one of our suppliers, “As the economic recovery starts to occur, our suppliers are now experiencing raw material shortages, and commodity prices continue to rise. As a result, supplier lead times are being extended, and in some cases, allocations have begun to be implemented, particularly on electronic components. In addition, transportation logistics have significantly been impacted by congested ports, reduced air freight capacity, and U.S. Customs clearance delays, and significant increases in cost.”

These sentiments confirm what we are seeing at Vincent Corporation. Lead times from our suppliers are growing and seem destined to get worse before they get better. Some people are calling it the Corona hangover. In particular, and most concerning, is stainless steel. Prices are climbing and scarcity could become an issue. Obviously, stainless steel is a huge part of our equipment and will impact our costs and delivery times. Also concerning are gearboxes from Germany, motors from Asia, aluminum for air cylinders from Canada and Russia, etc. Compounding the issue are the logistical logjams at our ports.

For those recipients of this newsletter who own our equipment, we suggest that you review any critical spares that you should have on hand to keep the equipment running. As always, we will do whatever we can if an emergency need arises, but “whatever we can” will probably be not as good as it has been in the past.

For those recipients planning the purchase of equipment who need that equipment for a harvest season or timed for an outage, keep in mind that delivery times are lengthening. It would be wise to place the order as much in advance as possible.

If you have any questions, please contact one of our engineers. This is an unusual situation and we will be tracking developments. If significant changes occur, we will continue to communicate with you on this topic.

ISSUE #333