Specialist contractors, worried that smaller companies could close, are angry about the decision by UK glassmakers to increase their prices by up to 50% one after another. A petition has been signed by more than 750 people calling for the government to investigate the recent increases by the leading glass producers. Both Pilkington and Saint-Gobain are said to have increased their prices similarly within a few days of each another in May 2009, with less than one month's notice, while others are following suit. Pilkington sent a letter to its customers on 20 May, in which it said that the price of glass and the fall in demand had caused manufacture and supply to become uneconomical, and that price rises would come into effect as of 8 June. "As a result we have taken the decision to increase the price of raw glass." The increases varied from 5% for its insulating glass units, to 50% for clear float glass. The prices rises took place about 18 months after Guardian, Pilkington the UK arm of Nippon Sheet Glass, Saint-Gobain of France and Belgium's Glaverbel, four of the world's biggest producers, were fined GBP 348.2 million for illegally co-ordinating price rises.
