'I never heard of the Strait of Hormuz before this': How one medical supply CEO is navigating the oil price shock

A few months ago David Navazio, founder and CEO of medical supply company Gentell, had never heard of the Strait of Hormuz . But now, the narrow waterway thousands of miles away from the company's headquarters in Yardley, Pennsylvania, is impacting the company's operations in more ways than one. Chief among them is price, with Gentell under pressure from multiple angles. The company relies on derivatives from oil and gas production to manufacture its products, which includes medical dressings. Some raw material costs have surged by as much as 30%. And, with a global footprint that spans five continents, moving those products around has become a lot more expensive. Navazio said the cost to ship a container from New Zealand to California is now about $4,500 — up from about $2,000 prior to the war. For Americans, the most visible sign of the war in Iran is prices at the pump, where the national average has shot to a nearly four-year high above $4.50 a gallon. But petrochemicals derived from oil and gas production are found in more than 6,000 products consumers use daily – including aspirin, keyboards, perfumes, contact lenses and vitamin capsules. As those raw material costs rise, companies have to decide whether to pass the increase along to consumers and potentially face reduced demand, or else keep prices lower at the expense of company margins. …