Fisher & Paykel is the latest manufacturer to be forced into raising prices on whitegoods.

The company has blamed the exhorbitant cost of steel, which has gone up by about 70%, for the next round of price increases due to kick in in September.

 
At a profit briefing yesterday, the whitegoods maker reported a 14% fall in bottom line profit to $54.2 million. Despite this, it said the looming price hikes would amount to less than 10%.

 
Fisher & Paykel has already had to lay off about 1000 manufacturing workers in a company restructure which has seen manufacturing move offshore to places like Thailand and Mexico.

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