Wabash National Corp. announced Thursday, Aug. 28, that prices of its trailer products will increase an average of 5 percent effective for new orders booked on or after Oct. 1, with an additional increase ranging from 3 to 5 percent effective Jan. 1, 2009.
“The costs of raw materials and purchased components have been rising at unprecedented rates for the past few years and have continued throughout 2008,” says Dick Giromini, president and chief executive officer of Lafayette, Ind.-based Wabash.
Giromini says steel costs have more than doubled this year alone, and aluminum is projected to increase another 45 percent by yearend. “While we have historically adjusted our pricing models as material costs have climbed over time, we felt that with such significant adjustments, we owe it to our customers to provide them as much advanced notice as possible,” he says. “As always, we continue to aggressively seek ways to contain costs and provide the best value to our customers.”
