CLAY Williams, chief executive of US drilling and production contractor NOV presented analysts recently with an unusually granulated picture of how increased material, freight and labour costs have taken a grip of the industry. "We are facing inflation in labour, raw materials and components that we buy from subcontractors, but our teams have been diligent in pursuing alternate supplies and we are generally able to offset most of the cost inflation with higher pricing to customers," he said in late October during NOV's third-quarter results webcast. Williams noted that supplies of resin, epoxy and fiberglass-integral to its composite pipe and tubular coating businesses-remain critically low and in some instances have nearly doubled in cost.
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