Overlooked amid the meltdowns of the financial industry was the cooling of speculation in metals that had driven prices to record levels. The rising cost of industrial metals began to impact those who manufacture, sell and use metal stage gear such as aluminum trusses and steel catwalks. But demand and pricing have since undergone a massive correction due to huge drop in demand. That’s prompted some companies that supply metal staging and lighting equipment to review their own pricing on a monthly basis, versus the usual annual price reviews… All that seems certain is that volatile price swings create the thing that businesses fear most: uncertainty, and the inability to reliably forecast strategically. “People might initially think that dropping prices are a good thing,” says Bill Anderson, marketing director at TMB in Southern California, which supplies professional lighting and staging equipment from its locations in Los Angeles, London, New York, Toronto and Beijing. “But the reality is, when prices change this fast in either direction, it removes your ability to plan inventories. That’s the real issue for all of this.”
—Dan Daley, from “The Biz,” PLSN, March 2009
