Like many other firms, UK-based Electro Furnace Products Ltd (EFP), is counting the cost of continuing rises in enrgy & raw material prices. Owing to excessive power price hikes in the UK, the company has recently been forced to raise its prices by some 10-15% in order to recover costs, & is also reducing operating time. A spokesman said: "Towards the end of 2005, we were hit by an electricity price rise of 65%, & gas price increase of 58%. We forecast an increase in prices for Jan/06 in the order of 56%". As a result, EFP's 18,000/tpa plant in Hull has had to reduce opeating time from 7 to 5/dpw. "In 2005, EFP, which has an annual turnover of £10m, spent £250,000 on gas & just over £500,000 on electricity. Not even our sister firms in the USA have faced the same costs". said the spokesman adding that energy prices in the USA have increased but in the order of only 5-7%.
