Prices of Auto Parts & Accessories Rising
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that costs are rising across almost every industry. Groceries, raw materials, imported goods, domestic goods, cars, and energy has been rising at alarming rates.
Shutdowns during the global pandemic are to blame and to some extent, people blame policies of our new Administration for rising gasoline prices.
After bottoming out around $460 per ton last year, the benchmark hot-rolled coil steel, the steel widely used for automobile and truck body panels, has climbed to approximately $1,600 a ton, according to various indexes of steel prices. The current is nearly triple the 20-year average.
Used car prices are rising because there’s a shortage of computer chips, and therefore automakers aren’t able to complete production on tens of thousands of new cars, many of them sitting 99% finished and stored in parking lots until this issue is resolved. Because of this, car dealers are scooping up every used car they have so that they can have something, anything on their lots to sell.
This brings us to aluminum. Aluminum is what billet wheels are made of. According to the World Bank, the almuminum price will increase to $2000 per metirc ton in 2021, a 17% rise from 2020. By 2035, aluminum is expected to rise to $2400 per ton.
Further, shipping costs of ALL goods have been driven up by rising fuel prices and driver shortages. International shipping charges and freight container costs have likewise skyrocketed. Freight shipping has found itself in a unique situation where unforeseen events have left a global shortage of containers, which has had a domino effect down the supply chain, disrupting global trade.
In case you haven’t guessed, this means that these rising prices are affecting our beloved hot rod hobby. If it’s made from metal, rubber, plastic or anything else, or if it has to get on a boat, airplane or truck to get here, the prices have gone up.
Like most manufacturers, Boyd Coddington Wheels had to take a hard look at our own supply chain and related overhead costs. After delaying a decision as long as we could, we rcenetly matched the actions of most other wheel manufactuers by increasing prices on some products.
Fitment Industries released this post on June 2, 2021.
This is not a drill.
Aftermarket wheels are one of the first mods that enthusiasts want to do to their cars. We fully understand that. After all, we are true enthusiasts too. So, this information has just become available to the aftermarket industry as a whole and it is important to us that we share this information with all of our fellow car enthusiasts too.
Due to the current climate of the world, wheel prices are going to start increasing on June 15th, 2021. This increase is going to happen across almost every wheel brand out there.
That means Rotiform, TSW, Niche, Motegi, among others, are going to start hiking up their wheel prices. And by no small amount.
This effects everybody – every parts manufacturer, every shipping company and every consumer. If prices haven’t risen in a segment of the market, you can bet that they will soo enough. No one will be spared.
Fortunately, hot rodders know that buying quality parts are worth the investment. While most manufacturers of hot rodding parts are solidly committed to making the best parts possible, with these prices, they will all need to focus on stocking and selling the “A” movers — those items that are perennial favorites.
As the world moves to ban the sales of new cars with internal combustion engines, the hot rodding hobby’s future is as strong as it’s ever been.