The Turmoil from High Commodity Prices |
| BusinessWeek - Apr 22, 2008 |
In the world of higher commodity prices, corporate winners and losers fall into two distinct camps. Commodity producers are big beneficiaries, their business outlooks generally strong and their ratings stable, as scarcity and worldwide demand affect everything from corn to copper. But companies that rely heavily on grain, oil, or other commodities to make finished goods face increasing costs and thus weaker profits if the slowing U.S. economy makes raising prices more difficult.
The fallout from high commodity prices will be unequally distributed and determined by whether one is a buyer or seller of commodities. The level of commodity input into finished goods and the ability to raise prices will determine how serious the impact will be for commodity users.
Low steel costs, for instance, are certainly better than higher costs for automakers. But steel is a relatively small part of a car's cost, and the woes of Detroit's Big Three (oil prices and labor costs, for example) go far beyond steel prices. Baked goods, cereals, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products all contain, directly or indirectly, large amounts of corn or wheat, so the impact of higher prices for those grains is widely felt among food processors. And the high price of oil will clearly be deleterious for industries like refiners or airlines, where oil is a major input.
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- Posted: 2008-04-22 09:06:20
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