Business View Caribbean | October 2022

41 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 10 price increases. “Nine to twelve months after the pandemic started, shipping costs started rising due to a significant backlog in equipment orders,” says Roach. “Some equipment orders moved from six weeks to six months SLT.” “Fortunately, we had the foresight to increase our inventory to help us through these long lead times. Although we are seeing stability resuming, I do not think we are out of the woods because some challenges continue, and others worsen, especially prices.” “We’ve seen significant price changes and volatility. At one time, pricing was so unstable you would see commodity prices like copper change drastically overnight. This volatility made it exceedingly difficult to quote for jobs and hold the quoted prices.” “On a positive note, for the first time since COVID started, we have seen prices not continuing to WI LL I AMS SOLAR