The plastic ring, new to the market, not only had a much longer life than the PW steel ring but also apparently had a much lower manufacturing cost
. Thorborg's problem stemmed from PwI's large quantity of steel rings on hand and the substantial inventory of special steel that had been purchased for their manufacture.
After a thorough survey he had found that the special steel could not be sold, even for scrap: the total book value of these inventories exceeded $390,000