Tensar International Corp. has increased prices for its subgrade improvement and road base reinforcement geogrid products globally. The 10-percent increase, effective May 2, has been implemented to partially offset significantly higher polymer raw material costs.

“Global polymer costs have continued to rise steeply and market uncertainty has continued to fuel further increase,” explained Robert Vevoda, Tensar International president and managing director. “We had hoped for some stability in polymer prices following the sustained rises throughout 2010, but there are no signs of this happening, and we can no longer absorb the full cost increase.”

Global cost of polypropylene is affected by a complex combination of factors. Crude oil and natural gas prices, global cracking capacity and demand for gasoline and ethylene all have major impact on propylene availability and cost.

Global polypropylene prices began an upward trend in early 2009. Apart from a slight easing in late 2010, prices have continued to climb —a trend that has also been seen with other construction materials, such as steel.