Energy crisis and rising prices... What to do about it?

Hello dear customers, Hello friends,

these lines were written on the basis of questions from you, our customers, who have recently (in the last few weeks) become nervous about the price development of some of our products, especially safes... Yes, it was to be expected that prices would go up when the price of steel on the European market went up sharply, copying steel prices on world markets, especially in China, which is now the world's largest buyer of steel and steel products. However, that prices would shoot up so extremely and be reflected with such vigour in the prices of the final products was not expected by the vault manufacturers and neither did I ! Two of our "backyard" suppliers/manufacturers were forced to revalue products twice during this spring and summer.

The worldwide shortage of silicon chips for whatever applications - this is also a chapter in itself... In the market, a small section of which is electronic security systems, camera systems and generally applied electronics, this has also been evident since the spring of this year. Many reputable manufacturers (Risco, Texecom and others) are not able to deliver immediately or to deliver on time for the agreed deadlines various components and so our delivery dates to end customers are unbearably prolonged in the order of weeks to months...

And to make matters worse, I am regularly "bombarded" with emails from Chinese PV panel manufacturers and Lixxx battery manufacturers, mostly directly from relevant management (CEO's and the like), warning me that we can expect PV panel prices to rise across the board in the foreseeable future due to the global energy crisis (which may be in its infancy, but will continue to grow and we will all be very surprised). 90% of global PV panel production is in China and Taiwan. A PV panel is an aluminum frame (aluminum is getting more expensive) and silicon large area chips. Preliminary estimates speak of about 25 to 30% increase in price, the next question will be availability. It may extend from the current weeks to units of months to half a year. This is the more optimistic option! Silicon and silicon wafers have become 400% more expensive compared to 2020 !!!

Based on the above-mentioned and undeniable facts, I recommend all my current and future customers to start pre-stocking photovoltaic components, especially PV panels, because if anything will be suitable as an investment in the near future and as a tool to survive the global crisis, it will be the above-mentioned commodities!

Thank you for reading and reflecting on the situation...

Miroslav Jakl, Managing Director

SAFE - Security and Future Energy™