WTP Buynamics Report: Nine US Manufacturing Industries Show Different Pricing Behavior Since 2021, Giving Procurement a Starting Point for Negotiation

Procurement Inflation & Negotiation Index Finds Some Suppliers Held onto Cost Declines, Others Face New Tariff Pressure, & Chipmakers are Still Absorbing Costs Years Later

'S-HERTOGENBOSCH, The Netherlands, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A new analysis from WTP Buynamics, a cost intelligence platform, tracked nine major US manufacturing industries from 2020 through early 2026 and found the gap between cost and price running in opposite directions depending on the industry, giving procurement teams a starting point for negotiation with suppliers. The Procurement Inflation & Negotiation Index shows output prices running above their own input costs in four industries, the reverse in three, where costs climbed faster than prices, one industry close to breakeven, and one where a wide gap should close soon.

Since 2025, the US has imposed new Section 232 tariffs across several industries, including those tracked in the Index. For example, steel and aluminum duties doubled to 50% in 2025, and softwood lumber duties now run in the mid-30% range. Each adds new cost pressure, on top of the gaps the Index has found, in industries where suppliers are not all responding the same way.

One industry in the Index runs against the broader inflation narrative. Semiconductor and related device manufacturers absorbed a 28% rise in input costs over five years while output prices barely moved and were still 12% - 14% percent below their own input costs as of late 2025.

What the analysis shows, across all nine industries:

Strongest case to renegotiate

• Iron and steel mills. A 12-point gap between output prices and input costs today, down from a 74-point peak in 2021. Output prices remain 68% above where they stood in 2020.
• Confectionery from purchased chocolate. The widest gap in the Index. Cocoa prices crashed roughly two-thirds from their 2025 peak, even as confectionery output prices climbed 42% from early 2024 to a late-2025 peak and are still running 25 - 28 points above broader food-manufacturing prices.
• Paint and coating manufacturers. Output prices running 16% above input costs, a reversal from a 12% gap below cost in 2021, even as titanium dioxide and resin costs have eased to within 6% of the current output price.
• Plastics bottle manufacturers. Output prices holding 7.3% above resin's own easing cost trend. On a $50 million spend base, that gap represents roughly $3.65 million.

Case to lock in terms

• Motor vehicle transmission and power train parts. Output prices running 17% below input costs, and the gap is widening as broader input costs keep climbing.
• Metal cookware, cutlery, and forging. An 11% gap below cost, reopening after input costs and output prices briefly matched in 2025.
• Semiconductor and related device manufacturers. A 12% - 14% gap below cost that should begin to close, detailed above.

Worth monitoring

• All other miscellaneous chemical product and preparation manufacturers. Close to breakeven, at 1.7% below cost.
• Wood container and pallet manufacturers. A 19% gap below cost that, based on analysis, should close within a few quarters, as new softwood lumber tariffs push input costs higher.

"A gap between cost and price doesn't prove a supplier is overcharging. It tells procurement where to start asking questions. We found that pattern running in both directions across nine industries," said Robert Driessen, founder and CEO at WTP Buynamics. "In some, suppliers may still be holding onto increases from 2021. In others, they're absorbing costs they haven't passed through yet. This is industry-level data, not a read on any one company, so we treat it as a reason to ask, not an answer. Procurement teams now have that data to open the conversation instead of guessing at it."

WTP built the Index by comparing US Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price data against its own proprietary industry cost-structure data. The Index also weighed rising wages and energy costs, both common explanations for high supplier prices. WTP applied one national wage figure and one national electricity figure – production wages up 18% and industrial electricity up 34% – since 2020, the same way across all nine industries, then weighted each by that industry's own cost structure. The analysis shows labor and energy add no more than 3.4 percentage points to total cost in any industry in the Index. This reflects a cost contribution, not a share of the 74-point price gaps shown elsewhere in the Index.

The full Index breaks down all nine industries, with a current price gap and a negotiation read for each one. It is available at www.buynamics.com/the-procurement-inflation-negotiation-index/.

ABOUT WTP BUYNAMICS

WTP Buynamics is a cost intelligence platform that gives procurement teams at manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers cost models, live commodity pricing, and freight lane data across 160-plus countries, so buyers can negotiate on facts instead of a supplier's price story. WTP's platform tracks 5,000-plus commodity prices and 360-plus industry cost structures, and is used by companies including Walmart, Dollar Tree, and Mars. Learn more at www.buynamics.com.

SOURCE WTP Buynamics / CORPORATE INK