Dear forum members and film enthusiasts,



I have very positive and encouraging news from Kodak (Eastman Kodak and Kodak Alaris) for you.

Very important:

This is official information from Kodak Alaris! It is one of the results of an important conference call of EK / KA in Rochester, KA in UK and KA in Germany.

I've got it directly from them. And I have asked for permission to publish it and they have given me the permission to publish it.



The news:

1. The global film orders (demand) for Kodak films are surpassing the current production capacity (converting / finishing) by far.

2. This is caused mainly by the general demand and market increase (film revival), but Kodak is also benefitting from film discontinuations / package option reductions and price increases by competitors.

3. There is a special problem with Kodak ColorPlus film: The demand is huge, and there are very big backorders. Currently it is impossible to get enough of the needed raw materials on the market to produce enough to get all backorders fulfilled. This situation cannot be changed in the short term. This supply bottleneck will probably last at least until summer 2020.



What is Kodak's reaction to this strong increasing demand:

1. Kodak is investing extensively / extraordinarily in new production infrastructure, which will increase production capacity significantly.

2. This huge investment is absolutely needed to get the results all customers want, but it will take time. It cannot be done "over night".

3. In the meantime Kodak is working very hard and doing all what needed to produce as much film as possible.



Some additional info from me:

- already some months ago Kodak told me that they have to run 35mm film converting in 3-shifts per day to keep up with demand

- to get the film as fast as possible into the market often air transport is used instead of shipping by ship (despite the much higher costs)

- Kodak alone has global film backorders in the two-digit million unit range

- Fufilm has also significant global backoders, but not as high as Kodak

- both Kodak and Fujifilm already have had significant backorders last year at Photokina, and since then demand and backorders have further increased

- there are some hints from very reliable sources that Fujifilm is reintroducing a color film globally next year (but this is not officially confirmed yet).



The film revival is getting stronger.



Best regards,

Henning

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