Yup, you are correct. But i did ask if anyone had heard anything, not if it was going to greatly effect their profitability. Like it does mine.
What you tend to see happen when things like this occur is the majority of the products on the market stay around the same price and the higher end products go up considerably. This is because the higher end products will not be able to source the materials they need without having to pay more, while the major product lines will just adjust their formulations to compensate. Over a period of time this causes the mid level and lower paints to constantly perform worse and worse as their quality slowly goes down hill, while the higher quality products get more expensive. This has been going on in spurts for 25 years and is why there are so many fewer paint companies than there were. It may not effect the painters immediately, but eventually it will.
But what i am hearing is that the industry is starting in a cycle of upward spiraling costs unlike what it has seen for quite some time. They are expecting the next 7-10 years to be pretty tough for the high end paint companies. As if they haven't been tough for them the last 7-10 years! I suspect that you, the painters, may see quality levels drop off considerably faster in the next several years especially with the "staple" products along with continuously rising prices.