The producer price index increased by 5.9 per cent in August due to higher prices in both energy goods and manufacturing.
Extraction of crude oil and natural gas had the largest contribution with an increase of 9.8 per cent. The price of natural gas increased while the price of crude oil fell slightly from July. The price of natural gas continued to rise because of high demand and limited spare capacity on the supply side. A reason for the high demand is the need for a cleaner alternative than coal for electricity production. This have led to increased prices as supply is not increasing at the same pace. Refined petroleum products also had a price increase of 9 per cent in August, while the price of electricity, gas and steam increased by 13.7 per cent.
Prices increase in manufacturing
The prices increased by 2.9 per cent for the manufacturing sector in August. Prices of basic metals continued to rise in August by 5.6 per cent, of which iron and steel as well as non-ferrous metals had the largest impact. The latter increased by 5.2 per cent. Among other things, the price of aluminum is historically high because of high demand (ft.com). This high demand is partly due to increased activity in the manufacturing industry. Prices for fabricated metal products also increased by 3.9 per cent in August.
Another industry that has stood out in recent months is wood and wood products, which continues the price surge. The wood and wood products industry increased by 8 per cent in August and thus continues up for the eighth month in a row. The change over the last year was 30.6 per cent. A subgroup in this industry is sawing and planning of wood, where the price increase from last year was 74.6 per cent. There are several reasons for the increased prices (nrk.no), including bark beetle attacks, increased construction activity and a deficit in materials.
Other industries with price increases that can be mentioned are chemical products, which increased by 5.2 per cent, and rubber and plastic products, which increased by 3.5 per cent in August.
