Well, another financial year has been concluded, and it certainly has been surprising. Amidst the doom and gloom, and the fears of both suppliers and clients going out of business mid contract, we have had a record turnover. Some of the main things we saw this financial year in our industry were:
- A huge management change in a key supplier along with promises of performance improvement,
- A major new supplier entering into competition with that key supplier,
- Very keen pricing from our steel sheeting and purlin suppliers,
- A proportion of our competition dropping out of the market,
- A change in the tendering and administrative requirements for some of the majors making it easier for some of the smaller engineering firms to bid and win on an even playing field,
- A large and successful pushback on some of the majors who had tried to introduce significant payment delays to contractors, and of course
- The Arrium group changes
Our predictions for ourselves in the coming year are that with the turmoil and unpredictability, a number of closed gold mines will look at refurbishing and starting up, and a number of prospective gold mines who were not feasible at 1600 an ounce suddenly find themselves ready to build.