Washington (AFP)

The wallets of American consumers have started to suffer, and it is expected to continue: the price of diapers, cereal packages and many other everyday items, could soar in the months to come.

The 3M Group, whose product line ranges from post-it notes to car coatings and bandages, is the latest company to warn of future price increases on Tuesday.

Not only have raw materials increased, but between the pandemic and Storm Uri that hit the United States in February, logistics costs have climbed, the company said.

Almost all products are affected.

Including hygiene products.

- Soaring prices -

Pampers diapers, Always and Tampax feminine protections, among others, will see their prices climb by 5% to 10% in the United States, announced the giant Procter & Gamble, explaining thus trying to offset part of the increase in the cost of raw materials.

And no need to try to escape it by going to the competition: from the end of June at the latest, the increase will be similar for Huggies diapers or Scott toilet paper, which belong to the Kimberly-Clark group. .

This surge in prices is the result, among other things, of a "combination of supply chain disruptions," Diane Swonk, economist for Grant Thornton, told AFP.

The sudden onset of the pandemic forced factories to shut down.

Then, over the months, demand picked up.

However, "it is easier to turn off the lights in a factory than to turn them back on, especially in the midst of a pandemic where you must apply safety protocols and space workers further apart," comments Diane. Swonk.

Consumers around the world, hungry for restaurants, trips or even cinemas, then ordered more and more goods, often made in Asia, creating traffic jams in factories and ports.

Ships then stay at sea longer, a phenomenon that has even resulted in a global shortage of containers.

Difficulties that could last a year, recently warned the president of the American Central Bank (Fed), Jerome Powell.

This bottleneck effect also caused the shortage of semiconductors - which now slows the production of cars and electronic devices - when the entire world, then confined, rushed to computers and consoles. games, further squeezing an already strained market due to the US-China trade war.

- Cheerios and peanut butter -

You will have to tighten your belts at breakfast, with prices rising for Cheerios cereals, these little rings very popular with children and adolescents among others.

A peanut butter toast?

Too late, food giant JM Smucker has raised prices since August.

"Inflation is large and global," recently noted Jeffrey Harmening, CEO of General Mills, manufacturer of Cheerios, among other things.

Same observation on the other side of the Atlantic, where the boss of the Swiss giant Nestlé, Mark Schneider, recently spoke of "generalized inflation for basic products, packaging materials and transport costs".

In addition to the supply difficulties, we must add the weather, which has added a grain of salt: it has thus led the price of corn to climb by 40% since the start of the year.

It has more than doubled compared to last year at the same time.

The corn harvest in Brazil is currently being penalized by a drought, Brian Hoops of brokerage firm Midwest Market Solutions told AFP, preventing the country from meeting global demand.

As a result, "the door is wide open for the United States to export a lot of corn to the world," reducing supply in the domestic market and pushing prices up.

Especially since at Uncle Sam, it is the cold that delayed sowing, details the analyst.

The prices of raw materials and spare parts in the United States climbed in March at the highest rate ever recorded in a month.

Inflation on all consumer goods and services accelerated over one year (+ 2.6%), at its fastest pace since autumn 2018, according to the CPI index.

But a broad consensus of economists now agrees on the temporary nature of this increase.

noo-dho-jum-jul / juj / vgr / nzg

© 2021 AFP