JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — A local chemical company once used only a percentage of supplies from china and majority of supplies from North America.
Now the company finds themselves buying all supplies from China.
Guy Berkebile the President and Founder of Guy Chemical Company in Somerset County has kept a close eye towards product supply and demand but could not help turning to China to keep his company afloat.
Guy Chemical Company opened up business in 1995 and over the past twenty-seven years has expanded and has provided advanced silicone sealants and greases as well as other adhesives.
Berkebile told WJAC, “We do it from A to Z. We develop and can give a national brand a product ready to go on the shelf at Walmart or Auto Zone or Home Depot.”
Majority of the companies supplies came from North America with Dal as one of the largest suppliers.
However Berkebile says, “The rate of inflation we were experiencing here in the United States is killing our product sales over seas. We were forced to turn to China. It's not just Dal, were seeing these shortages across the board you know from other chemical companies.”
From March 2021 to January 2022 Berkebile watched the price of silicone and other adhesives increase.
He found the same products were cheaper over seas in China.
The company now receives all of its supplies from China, although Guy says not everything is as perfect as it may seem.
He told channel 6, “There's really only one benefit and that is price. The quality is pretty equal to what we have here, but its strictly a pricing issue and availability.”
Berkebile added, a disadvantage of buying supplies from China is it takes a shipment approximately three months to arrive at his company where as in the United States shipments take just a few weeks.
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