The rising and volatile costs of transportation, energy and raw materials could lead to soaring prices for businesses and consumers during 2026, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), reports the Guardian.
The price of consumer goods including computers, electrical machinery and transport equipment could surge this year the CIPS said, adding that “cracks [are] forming in the global trading system.”
CIPS, an international trade body that represents 64,000 member organizations in procurement and supply chains across 180 countries, conducted a survey of its members in late 2025. The report based on the survey results, entitled “Procurement professionals sound the alarm for sustained consumer price increases in 2026,” found that procurement teams had growing worries about disruption to supply chains, and their concerns about the next three months had reached the highest level in two years. As a result, procurement professionals feel forced to streamline suppliers, tighten costs and rethink resilience strategies for 2026.
The Pulse Survey, released on February 3, identified shipping and logistics as the category most likely to see significant price increases, with 22% of respondents reporting cost rises of over 10% by the end of 2025.
Freight rate movements between December and January for cargoes going between Asia – Europe and Asia – U.S. illustrate the scale of volatility procurement teams are now expected to absorb across major shipping routes, reaching as high as 29% change over those two months for Asia to U.S. West Coast routes, CIPS said.
Ben Farrell, CEO of CIPS, said: “Procurement professionals are often the first to see cracks forming in the global trading system. What this survey showed at the end of 2025 and what January 2026 has already confirmed is that volatility is no longer an exception. When logistics costs can swing by 20–30% in weeks, those pressures inevitably ripple through to businesses and consumers alike.”