Wayne McDougall, GASAA president, says he has approached all major suppliers of graphic arts consumables in Australia on behalf of GASAA members to seek a downward review of prices of imported products.

“Most, if not all suppliers increased prices on at least two occasions over the past two years on the basis of the then low Australian dollar. The increase was of the order of fve per cent on each occasion,” says McDougall.

“The Australian dollar has moved up by 31c or 65 per cent against the USD since its low point in April 2001. The improvement against the Euro over this period has been .753 euro (up 14 per cent); 24.03 yen (up 39 per cent) and .712 pence (up 21 per cent).” These figures are based on trends during early to mid-March 2004.

“As the price increase of two years ago were justified by suppliers on the basis of a poor Australian dollar this position has not be sustainable for at least the past 12 months when the USD dollar broke the 60c mark and rocketed to 20 year highs almost touching 80c in recent weeks”, says McDougall.

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