First Mold Announces Moderate Price Adjustment Amid Global Chemical Raw Material Surge

ZHONGSHAN, China, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The closure of Strait of Hormuz and later slowed movement of ships with oil through the channel has significantly affected the most industries in the plastic injection molding. About 5% of the global oil is used to make plastics.

The closure of this channels have made some companies like First Mold experience a lot of pressure. First Mold is a global leader in the provision of precision manufacturing services and effectively it receives exceeding higher demands for their services and products.

With the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz and limited supply of petroleum raw materials for the production of plastics, First Mold has sought different modes to adapt and continue serving its clients. Consequently, it announced a moderate adjustment to pricing. This adjustment does not affect all the products and services but just a select production like. It is meant to compensate the procurement bottlenecks and delayed supply costs.

"We are facing a critical situation currently from the current Iran war. The majority of our raw material costs are tied to global petrochemical indexes, which have seen unprecedented spikes due to upstream supply constraints caused by current international tensions. The current restrictions has made us make slight adjustments because the cost of these raw materials has significantly increased. To continue serving, we seek our partners and clients to understand and be patient with our current slight adjustments in our services prices as we manage the situation. We promise them that once we effectively manage it or the war ends, we will get back to normal operations", said James Li, the CEO of First Mold.

The CEO further noted that the butadiene and nylon 66, key raw materials in the plastic injection molding at First Mold were the most affected. For example, the cost of butadiene increased by over 102%. The Sale Manager at First Mold in one of the crisis meeting held three weeks ago, revealed that the company was heavily hit by the escalated costs of polyurethane. This chemical is critical in the manufacturing systems at First Mold. It is used to produce numerous plastics like polycarbonate (PC), nylon and ABS. Before making a decision on adjusting prices of some of their services and products, First Mold tried all possible internal realignment but all options still are not sustainable. Some of these internal measures included process optimization, supply chain adjustments and improving production efficiency.

Price Adjustment Details

While announcing the price deviations, First Mold ensured that adjustment framework was justifiable. The CEO told the team that the new price model must be transparent, structured and should only be attached to the variations in the varying costs of the materials. Under this adjustment  framework, First Mold revealed that services affected by the petroleum-based feedstocks would be affected most while effect will be least in CNC manufacturing for metallic molds. "We offer numerous services to a wide range of clients. Not all our production lines are affected equally. For instance, our CNC manufacturing lines, steel mold manufacturing lines and prototyping services are least affected by the Iran war. The most affected lines are the plastics injection molding lines. Thus we only proposed to vary the prices on the services from these lines", said Production Manager, Bowen Huang. The following table summarizes the adjustment framework and justification for price adjustments.

The percentage price distribution was also determined based on the exposure of raw materials. The price increase for polyurethane is not same as that of ABS. This is because polyurethane was exposed to high chain wide supply pressure. The information about this adjustments were made on April 12^th 2026 and the implementation is expected to start applying on April 25^th 2026. However, the clients were further informed that the should the situation come down to normalcy, there will price readjustment. "We are closely monitoring the situation and are praying that it calms down soon. On the other side, we have deployed our R&D team to find alternative approach we can serve our clients without skyrocketing the prices," said Technical Director,  Michael Wang. Wang further clarified that First Mold is not going to increase the prices further, at least for the next three months. If anything, the company assured its customers that they have already started to work on the  best model to reduce the prices to normal state.

The Plan

The current decisions of adjusting the prices by First Mold is just temporary approach to help the company sustain its operations as it works on the effective plan. Suppose the war will not end soon, and the Strait of Hormuz remain closed disrupting the supply chain of the petrochemicals, the company is currently engaged in research to explore wider options. One of the strategy is material substitution. The company seeks to substitute some of the materials that resulted to the high prices with alternate polymers that are economical without altering the product design. "Some materials like polyurethane (PU) are highly affected contributing to high production cost. We are currently working on ways of substituting it with other polymers like TPE. Such decision can reduce the cost by 6%-10%. However we are currently analyzing compatibility and functionality of these substitution before implementing," said Michael Wang.

The second approach First Mold is planning to implement in case the war continues is process implementation and enhancement of design for manufacturability (DFM) to reduce production inefficiencies. In this plan, the company seeks to optimize wall thickness, improve on draft angle and reduce undercuts. The company project to reduce cost per part from $1.0 to $ 0.82 while cycle time reducing from 40 seconds to 32 seconds. While receiving this short term strategic plan, the CEO noted that it was worthwhile and it has to be implemented whether the war continues or end. "This plan is great. We can say we have positively from the war. We have to implement this plan even if the war ends. It will help us significantly lower the cost of production and consequently compensating our clients for price increment for the next few weeks," noted James Li, the CEO of First Mold. Li's comments implies that for the partners purchasing their products at the proposed raised prices, they will be offered discounts once the company return to normal operations at the end of the war.

Boilerplate

While the Iran war shook normal operations of First Mold, it provided a room for innovation and readjustment it operational framework of the company. Once the improvement plan is implemented, the company will experience lower production costs, with lower prices of their products. This will position First Mold at higher competitive position against other companies who will be recovering from the effects of the war.

About First Mold

First Mold was founded in 2010 and has its headquarters in Zhongshan, China. The company specializes in rapid prototyping, precision rapid tooling, and injection molding with China and Mexico dual base.

Business Contact:
Name: Young Lee
Position: Sales Manager
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +86 13925326660
Website: https://firstmold.com/

SOURCE First Mold