The price of almost anything pulled from the earth – ore, oil, organic carrots – has been on the rise. At the same time the share of economic activity taken by corporate profits, relative to wages, is at a cyclical high. So rising costs seem likely to put pressure on margins, except for those companies that can increase prices. Who has the power to do so?

Industries enjoying a tight balance between supply and demand have had no problem. The big miners, for example, welcome rising costs, as it allows them to push up their own prices while squeezing less efficient producers. Such conditions are necessarily temporary – customers search for substitutes and big profits encourage new entrants. But the lag can be significant given the long lead times for mining projects. For steel makers, however, periods of pricing power tend to be more transient. Steel prices have leapt this year in response to skyrocketing input costs, but this is thanks to low steel inventory levels globally. When there was more slack in 2005, steel prices slumped in spite of rising raw material bills.