Market Update

Market Update Bulletin

Supply chain bottlenecks continue to have significant negative impact on our business and industry. Several events have created the most difficult environment we’ve experienced in our 47-year history. Key contributing factors include: 

• Rod mill consolidation 
• Trade policy restricting imports of certain raw materials including steel wire 
• COVID-19 shutdowns depleting critical inventories and the ability to recover 
• Rod mill and wire mill scheduled and unscheduled maintenance shutdowns 
• Rod and wire mills running at less than full capacity all year 
• Significant labor and freight shortages 
• Economy is strong and demand has significantly increased 

Shortages are still tied to the pandemic and our backlog is sending us into 2022 production schedules. Inflation continues and monthly increases on raw materials shipped continue to put pressure on the industry. Due to material shortages keeping up with the increased demand is not realistic. We continue to get requests for additional volume but receive about 70% of material needed. Hiring is impacting our output as well. 

Our commitments to you as we navigate through these difficult times together: 

• Communicate as proactively as possible 
• Expedite orders with most high priority as we are able 
• Set realistic expectations around availability and lead times
• Continue to be disciplined with our “balancing of manufacturing” for all customers. We produce equally for all customers based on proportionate amount of historical spends and available wire availability
• We work from oldest to newest Pos as wire arrives
• Make every effort to increase output as wire arrives
• Focus on current customer base and will not open any new accounts until the market stabilizes 

IDC Spring has a history and reputation for leading the industry in customer service excellence. It is extremely painful for us to not be able to service our customers in the fashion they have been able to expect from IDC Spring in the past. 

We look forward to the day IDC Spring can once again celebrate a 99.8% on time shipping rate that we were able to maintain for 10+ years. 

Sincerely, 

Jenny McGrath, Director of Sales