No More Price Increases?

I don't want to tempt fate here, but has everyone noticed that the steady stream of price increase letters from suppliers seems to have dried up a little?


During the spring and early summer installation companies were inundated almost every week with letters from suppliers explaining how costs were going up. Glass suppliers were the worst offenders, as were Pilkington, with regular increases on the price of their insulating glass of 10-40%.


I'm wondering if the price increases have plateaued somewhat. We haven't had any at our place for a month or two, which based on the regularity of previous increase letters, does seem quite a while.


There was a huge fear back in the spring that the plethora of price increases were going to cripple businesses into shutting their doors, but up to now I haven't heard any reports of mass bankruptcies and closures.


I don't doubt though that the increases felt over the last 18 months will have had some impact on businesses. Margins will have been squeezed ever further, redundancies will have been made, making trading ever harder.