Is the price of paint going to skyrocket? Is there a paint shortage?
PLIERS
| Posted in General Questions on
Hope everyone is doing well. I was reading the news today and I came across an article about a current paint shortage and that prices will be going up. Is this true, should I be running out to get any paint I need now? I’m in NY so I’m not sure how much paint prices have increased, when I looked online it looked like price is still close to what it has been. I know all material costs are increasing but I thought paint was safe, guess not.
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Replies
I haven't bought a lot of paint this year, but last year my paint store (a PPG store) told me they had been having trouble getting enough paint cans in a particular size (might have been quart cans, I don't remember now). The paint itself was about the same price, but there was a shortage of certain size cans.
Lumber prices have actually dropped significantly compared to this past spring. I was at my commercial electrical supply house yesterday, and they told me copper has started to come down too, although "it's not coming down as fast as it went up" (no surprise there).
I think that means you're probably not going to see a big spike in paint prices, but that's based on my observations of other materials. The one thing I could think could be a problem here is that a lot of petrochemical plants in Southern Louisiana are offline due to the recent storm, so it's possible there is a shortage of feedstocks that the paint manufacturers need to make paint. THAT could be a potential cause of a price spike.
Bill
Three months ago our two nearest Sherwin Williams were having shortages. Had them call around and drove an extra 20 minutes to get what we needed. That Sherwin Williams had plenty of paint and was having a big sale. So, go figure.
I was in Sherwin Williams a couple weeks ago and the shelves were empty. The counter guy said that something like 80% of their base materials were manufactured in Texas, and the factories were heavily damaged by storms earlier this year. I don't know if this is industy-wide, or specific to SW. The box stores seem to have shelves well stocked with other brands.