Final answer:
The costs referred to in the statement appear to be fixed costs, which are incurred regardless of the company's level of production and include things like rent and salaries.
Step-by-step explanation:
When assessing a manufacturing company's costs, we categorize them into different types based on their behavior in relation to production levels. Fixed costs are those that a firm incurs regardless of its production volume. These costs do not fluctuate with production levels and include expenses such as rent for a plant or salaries for staff. On the other hand, variable costs change in direct proportion to the production volume. These are costs that a company only incurs when it produces something, and they can increase as the quantity of production increases. Examples include raw materials and direct labor.
Costs can further be distinguished as either direct costs, which can be directly traced to the production of a specific good or service, like raw materials for a product, or indirect costs, which are not directly attributable to a single product, like the salary of a facility manager.
In the provided context, mentioning that the costs are the ones the firm incurs before production points to them being fixed costs since they're necessary expenses that do not depend on the level of goods or services produced by the company.