Metal Fabrication Industry Post Covid Impact

Deadly Pandemic & Global Impact

Taken by big surprise, an epidemic that was supposed to strike in town in China and remain soon spread far and wide indicating how fluid the movement of nationalities has become in the contemporary era. The global ease of passenger movement has impacted businesses the World over. It has spread the deadly virus meant to inhabit a bat system among the people in virtually all the countries. As long as nuts keep consuming zoonotic species the threat will remain. Few small and remotely located countries have escaped the pandemic. But the impact of globalization has been all-encompassing. The World works as a global village and businesses and industries reflect conditions that dominate.

As the pandemic intensified the number of the dead began to rise in absence of immunity as the pathogen was totally exotic to the human body. Industries came to a stop, trading ended and so did small retail businesses due to frequent lockdowns that became imperative. Another big blow that was bound to come was the loss of employment with the closure of the businesses. The sum total impact affected household spending as well, and the blow came to rest on the metal industry heavily dependent upon residential construction.

Impact on Fabrication

Besides the big projects, construction related to housing came to a halt and so did the demand for building components. Metal fabrication is a versatile industry ranging from mega infrastructure projects to small building components needed as windows, doors, gates, stairs, and whatnot. In the case of small building components, it was ironworks and steel fabrication that is popular. The building components are not always designed for functional and geometric perfection. The ornate building components made using iron have been in vogue for ages. Most of the historic architectural edifices have been made using ornate designs in Europe and elsewhere.

Not only on small and mid-level fabricators the impact was equal on large-scale ironworks and steel fabricators alike. The number of people employed in the steel industry ranged from 130000 to 150000 before the pandemic. The industry that was developing to become more competitive and efficient due to computerization, automation, and induction of artificial intelligence came to a screeching halt in the year 2019.

There are more than 1700 steel fabricators and ironworks in the USA, and it is the largest market in North America. Of 1700 fabricators 1114 are certified for buildings and building components while the rest are certified for megaprojects like bridges, marine projects, and structural applications. About 100 of these fabricators are family-owned businesses.

In the US, the structural steel market and ironworks are expected to grow at the rate of 3% CAGR from the present 23 billion USD. But at this juncture, all-metal fabrication units are facing a predictable uncertainty due to the massive influx of Covid 19 on our society.

Works have been cut off, layoffs have occurred and evolution has come to a stop. Thanks to the emerging vaccination campaigns most countries including the US have been able to stem the rot. The recovery is full of hiccups as the impact of the virus is still palpable but nevertheless, businesses are resilient having faced extreme challenges to reach the pinnacle of the best performance to succeed. The destabilizing impact has been the worst on the fab units as both the skilled and semiskilled staff has been let loose in absence of work.

Recollecting the talent, and streamlining fabrication in the units will be a major challenge for those who do not have strong financial backing. This highly diversified field depends a lot on precision, and the loss of skilled workers and designers can be disastrous. Fabrication and ironworks are technology-driven unlike in the yesteryears. Automation, computerization, and induction of artificial intelligence have been incorporated by major players and it is not easy to man such units post destabilization.

In the US metal fabrication units are no strangers to challenges. But the pandemic has stretched out to an unprecedented length of time throwing industries into complete disarray. The industry has frequently faced raw material and labor shortages and thus recruiting talent stands out among all challenges the sector will face once the pandemic winds up for good.

Uday writes often on Indian wildlife especially about the tigers. He works as a naturalist and is fond of travel. Uday also provides search engine optimization service and website contents in English.