With most of the national news focused on big cities where COVID-19 has been devastating, there are areas of the economy that continue to help keep the country moving forward. Panel and trim roll formers, and related suppliers, are reporting the ability to remain open and receive and process orders, some of them using the time to catch up on back orders.
Small roll-forming shops typically have few workers, the ability to keep safe distances, and a clean work environment, and while they are often found in less densely populated areas, they all report taking state-mandated steps to further comply with COVID-19 protocol to keep the virus from spreading and overwhelming their local health care systems.
In northeast Ohio, Carl Zimmerman, Metal Exteriors, LLC, Shiloh, said business has been mostly normal thus far, with sales still up over last year.
“We see mixed opinions here with some people being optimistically cautious and a few that have put projects on hold,” he said.
He does expect the month of April to be “fairly slow,” but added: “We have a lot of people that are still getting quotes on buildings which may be a sign that things will eventually return to normal. After the ban gets lifted in late April and the weather turns nice, construction should start humming.”
In southeast Minnesota, Jacob Wollman, General Manager of Rush River Steel & Trim, reported that orders have remained strong. “Seems a lot of customers are sitting at home and have decided to do their procrastinated projects at this time, so we are pretty busy,” he said.
While COVID-19 safety protocols have made the work a little more cumbersome, at least they have been allowed to remain open. “Because we fall into material manufacturing essentials, we are continuing to serve our customers with building materials,” he added.
Out west in Utah, David “Homie” Mulcahy, owner of Retro Custom Metals, said he is “extremely busy with ongoing projects.”
He added, “I’m keeping my employees first-most safe, and working.”
Wayne Troyer, Acu-Form, Ohio, a manufacturer of roll-forming machines, has spoken to a number of regional roll formers in eastern states where the virus has hit hardest. In New York the governor announced a shut down of all construction in the state, but until that time, roll formers had been staying “fairly busy”. Said Troyer: “We are hearing a lot of positive things and people are still ordering machines saying they want to be ready when [the economy] opens again.”
For some business owners, the issue isn’t the availability of work, it’s the uncertainties of the virus. Larry Clark, owner of C&L Roofing & Sheet Metal, in northeast Pennsylvania, is a roofer by trade who does a lot of custom work on historic metal and slate, and roll forms his own panels and trim. He is in a high-risk group that needs to take extra precautions to avoid exposure to COVID-19, but typically works alone so has been able to pick and choose jobs from his own backlog to keep his distance from other people. His biggest issue to date is acquiring materials. “When I need materials, all of our suppliers are on a “pickup only outside the store”, which is not a problem,” he said. “The problem comes from the confusion of the transmission of the virus. I have read many articles and some say it can be transmitted on materials and some say unlikely. I am not sure anyone knows…All of this is slowing the progress of my jobs considerably.” For that reason, he is considering unemployment until the virus passes.
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