The number of companies that went bankrupt due to high prices hits the highest in five years in July

Last month, it was found that the number of companies that went bankrupt due to high prices, such as soaring raw material prices, was the highest in the past five years. Research firms say that there is a possibility that the number of bankruptcies will increase in the future, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises, as they will not be able to pass on the costs to the sales price.

According to Teikoku Databank, the number of companies that went bankrupt last month was 31 due to rising prices such as the purchase price of raw materials, fuel, and rising electricity rates.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been 116 companies, and by industry, 33 companies were in the transportation industry, which was affected by gasoline prices, accounting for about 30% of the total. There are 27 companies in the construction industry and 18 companies in the wholesale industry.

Most of these are small and medium-sized enterprises, and if the situation continues where it is difficult to pass on the increase in purchase prices to sales prices, there is a possibility that bankruptcies will increase in the future.

In addition, the overall number of bankruptcies remained at a low level due to the effects of virtually interest-free and unsecured loans as a countermeasure against the new variant of coronavirus, but has increased for three consecutive months since May.

A research company said, “In addition to high prices, there is a risk that many companies will start repaying loans without recovering to the level before the corona crisis, and bankruptcies will increase in the second half of the year.”

Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20220809/k10013761461000.html