I recently heard that the price of rubber is correlated with the price of gasoline. This same person said the industry is due for a massive price increase on rubber much like we have just seen with gasoline. Any thoughts on this? Does anyone believe this to be true?
Im asking because its news to me, and have never heard of such a thing. The person that told me was a window cleaner not a manufacturer.
Absolutely! If you go back into your books check “supply history” or however you keep track im sure…you’ll see a bit of a jump in price for rubber from just a couple of years ago,partly because it’s a petroleum product.
He could be right
Go down to current sources. Does that mean al suppliers will whack the price up now?
The price for rubber here has dropped (At Canada Cleaning Supplies) due to the Canadian Dollar appreciating.
I’d say the jump is partly due to increased transportation, warehousing, and financing costs. What’s the other part, in your opinion?
Hey Chris,
Everything is going up, if oil prices go up everything goes up, everybody relies on oil tooooooooooooooooooo much
I believe you’ve covered the vitals Lar! I’ve seen roughly about a 2.00 raise per dozen(of course depending on brand name) & as much as 18 to 22.00 on a gross(give or take)??
Would you guys ever consider switching to the generic brands that Racensteins or ABC sells. I think its called X rubber. If its a matter of a couple of bucks for the small guy like me i would never do it, but for some of the big guys on here would you?
As with the price of gas. The price of rubber has to be put in perspective. Even if the price doubles (highly unlikely) to $4 a rubber. And let’s say you use 3 different types of rubber and they last 2 days. That’s $6/day. That’s such a small cost of doing business as compared to fuel and other equipment.
I’ve tried almost every rubber available,except for the new 4 way rubber ftly because i only use an 18") i;ve grown to like the Soren or LFI for it.I’ll stick with the better rubber as i feel i get more bang for my buck.
As for over-all cost (as Mike P. shared) it’s not too bad but…take everything else into consideration and it does add to the whole scheme of things,which inevitably many will feel as times goes on.
As long as your pricing is good it should help counter the affects of escalating costs associated with this business.
Cant do it. We switched once to some no name rubber… Four years ago and I still catch crap for it. Our guys were picking old Ettore rubber out of the trash and using it for weeks to avoid the no name rubber. Once the crews get used to the best they will moan and groan about anything less.
Its like eating prime rib for years and then being fed under cooked rat.
Is your girlfriend a good cook?
Rubber comes from trees, not crude oil
But, it does need to be manufactured into rubber sticks, yes? What does manufacturing entail?
And, there are many varieties of rubber, not all of them natural.
In the link in my original post:
“Close to 21 million tons of rubber were produced in 2005 of which around 42% was natural. Since bulk of the rubber produced is the synthetic variety which is derived from petroleum, the price of even natural rubber is determined to a very large extent by the prevailing global price of crude oil.”
So is all the “rubber” (Sorbo, Unger, Ettore) made from oil. Are any really true rubber?
Told you Lar… single man here
I dunno; like I said – Chris mentioned her on WCR Nation. Is this a gray area?
No Black!!.. like rubber
Just kidding.
Window cleaning rubber is not made from rubber trees. there is a percentage in every rubber that is natural rubber, but that is then blended with synthetic rubber(petroleum product) elastomers m(petroleum product) and carbon (that’s why it leaves black marks on white walls - try that with Sorbo rubber (lower carbon content) or silicone rubber (no petro chemicals) and you’ll see.
Cheaper rubber has a higher carbon content, which is part of the reason it’s cheaper.
Factor in the aforementioned energy to harvest, blend, press, cut & package it, and the inevitable “it’s going to be on at least ONE truck” into the equation, and yes, when crude goes up, so does rubber.
The 4 dollar rubber days are coming, and I think a large rubber recycling effort will be initiated by someone as well.
