In order to cushion the “disproportionately sharp rise” in material, logistics, and other procurement costs, Heidelberg has announced that it will be moderately increasing the prices for its equipment business globally with immediate effect.

The company said this adjustment is being made in an economic environment of rising demand and costs for raw materials and is a necessary step in order to continue offering customers innovative solutions and top service.

“The current price development of raw materials shows an unprecedented upward momentum,” Heidelberg CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer said.

“Primarily due to the high demand from China as well as the global megatopic of electromobility, procurement costs have risen significantly in the short-term. In recent months, we have exhausted all possibilities to avoid an imminent price increase. We want to grow together with our customers and continue to be a reliable partner to them in a changing market environment.

“The moderate price increase that is now necessary will allow us to further expand our innovation leadership and is therefore also an investment in the future.”

A number of other businesses have also recently adjusted their pricing to reflect changes in freight and shipping costs and other procurement costs.

Flint Group Packaging increased the prices of its ink and coating products globally from 1 April as a result of its business facing an “extraordinarily turbulent set of supply chain conditions”, exacerbated by the global pandemic.

Ball & Doggett raised the prices on a range of its products from 15 March as a result of increasing shipping costs.

In addition to announcing the price hike, Heidelberg also mentioned that going forward, all of its Speedmaster models in small, medium, and large formats will be equipped with the new Push to Stop functions and a cloud connection as standard.

“This means that all customer groups can enjoy the steadily growing range of cloud-based software solutions and also benefit from future developments. Interesting innovations in the field of intelligent assistance systems and AI impressively demonstrate what is already possible today and where developments will go in the coming years,” the company said.