I don’t think the price increase is justifiable at all, I’m just trying to find some positive outcome from it. The statues are mostly 3-D modeled in Z-brush now and then 3-d printed and then the mold made from that, you are correct the price shouldn’t be going up economy of scale would dictate it should go down from the more efficient ability to create them and higher number of statues made.
However one thing that does effect the cost is the higher price of manufacturing in China because of social reforms for workers and conditions. Average manufacturing wage in a China tripled from 2008 to 2017 from 3,500 USD a year to 9,500 USD a year so that is going to have an impact, however the lower cost of crude should have lowered bulk shipping costs a lot around this time and other factors in play shouldn’t have doubled the cost of the statues.
Source:
https://tradingeconomics.com/china/wages-in-manufacturing