Our business depends on a continuous supply of raw materials. The principal raw materials used in our business include platinum, stainless steel, gold, titanium, nitinol, lithium, palladium, iridium, tantalum, nickel cobalt, ruthenium, gallium trichloride, vanadium oxide, carbon monoflouride and plastics. The supply and price of raw materials may be susceptible to fluctuations due to transportation issues, government regulations, price controls, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, increased tensions in Asia relating to China and Taiwan, changing geopolitical conditions, including any political instability resulting from war, terrorism, insurrections and foreign civil unrest, tariffs, worldwide economic conditions or other unforeseen circumstances. Increasing global demand for raw materials has caused prices of certain materials to increase. Significant increases in the cost of raw materials that cannot be recovered through increases in the prices of our products could adversely affect our results of operations. There can be no assurance that our customers will support or approve higher prices or that price increases and productivity gains or procurement deflation projects or savings will fully offset any raw material cost increases in the future. In addition, there are a limited number of worldwide suppliers of several raw materials needed to manufacture our products. For reasons of quality, cost effectiveness or availability, we obtain some raw materials from a single supplier. Although we work closely with our suppliers to seek to ensure continuity of supply, we may not be able to continue to procure raw materials critical to our business in sufficient quantities or at all or to procure them at acceptable price levels. A disruption or delay in deliveries from our suppliers, price increases or decreased availability of raw materials could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet our commitments to our customers and increase our operating costs. Finally, continued uncertainty around inflationary pressures and macroeconomic conditions have increased the risk of creating new, or exacerbating existing, economic challenges we face with regard to our supply chain. Inflation has the potential to increase our overall cost structure, and sustained inflation has resulted in, and may continue to result in, higher interest rates and capital costs, increased shipping costs, supply shortages, increased costs of labor, weakening exchange rates, and other similar effects. While we have implemented cost containment measures and taken other actions to offset these inflationary pressures in our global supply chain, we may not be able to completely offset all the increases in our operational costs.
We rely on third-party manufacturers to supply many of the products and subcomponents that are incorporated into our products and components. These third-party manufacturers have their own complex supply chains and related risks, whether due to the shipping risks described below, the raw material and availability risks described above, or other causes. Manufacturing problems may occur with these and other outside sources, as a supplier may fail to develop or manufacture products and subcomponents for us on a timely basis, or may supply us with products and subcomponents that do not meet our quality, quantity and cost requirements. Our third-party suppliers are also subject to shipping risks, including container shortages, blocked shipping lanes, and port backlogs. If any of these problems occur, we may be unable to obtain substitute sources for these products and subcomponents on a timely basis or on terms acceptable to us, which could harm our ability to manufacture our own products and components profitably or on time. In addition, to the extent the processes our third-party suppliers use to manufacture products and subcomponents are proprietary, we may be unable to obtain comparable products and subcomponents from alternative suppliers.
Our business is also subject to potential increased costs and expenses and others risks resulting from existing and potential future U.S. and foreign legislation, regulations and trade agreements relating to the products we manufacture outside of the U.S and import into the U.S. and other materials we import, including the tariffs on steel that the U.S. has imposed, the tariffs that the new U.S. presidential administration has imposed or threatened to impose, particularly relating to imports into the U.S. from Canada, Mexico (where we currently manufacture a significant portion of our products) and China, and other quotas, duties, tariffs or taxes or restrictions on imports, all or any of which could adversely affect our operations, increase the costs of products that we manufacture outside the U.S. or adversely impact our profits or margins. Adverse changes in import costs and restrictions, including tariffs, or the failure by us or our suppliers to comply with trade regulations or similar laws, could harm our business. If additional tariffs or trade restrictions are implemented by the U.S. or other countries in connection with a global trade war, the cost of our products manufactured in Mexico or other countries and imported into the U.S. or other countries could increase further, which, in turn, could adversely affect the demand for these products, make our products less competitive and have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Further such tariffs and, if enacted, any further legislation or actions taken by the U.S. federal government that restrict trade, such as additional tariffs, trade barriers, and other protectionist or retaliatory measures taken by governments in Europe, Asia, and other countries, could adversely impact our ability to sell products in our international markets. We cannot predict whether new or additional U.S. and foreign customs quotas, duties (including antidumping or countervailing duties), tariffs, taxes or other charges or restrictions, requirements as to where raw materials must be purchased or other restrictions on our imports will be imposed in the future or adversely modified, or what effect any such future actions would have on our costs of operations. Future quotas, duties or tariffs may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. In addition, future trade agreements or a global trade war could also provide our competitors with an advantage over us, or increase our costs, either of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.