Join the new world

I had the following comment to my last article which I thought deserved an in depth reply:

A high import tax should reduce the supply of MTs (somewhat) won't it? If that's the case, Canadian companies should be able to sell some of their stock on a regular basis to pay workers, as there should be at least some people buying tickets every day. With less supply, the demand should drive the price up a bit, unless Canadian companies increase output and flood the market. Cutthroat pricing might force some of those local companies to close, again reducing supply to meet the small demand.
If someone doesn't do the research, then can't stay afloat, well too bad for them - lesson learned and Darwin claims another victim.

That said, a low MT price does help those soldiers who are moving around to chase the fights, to level up and increase Canada's military power.

I try to keep a pretty close track on the industry for obvious reasons, so here are the current figures. It is too inexact a recording to tell you the total number of tickets sold during the previous 24 hours - it is most likely in the double digits - but it should give you an idea of the situation:

Total inventory under $10 (The price where I believe inventory won't sell) - 792 tickets (up 4 tickets from same time the previous day)
Current low price - $6.69 (down $0.05 from same time yesterday)
Foreign company inventory - 392
Total Canadian manufactured inventory (on sale) - 400
Total Canadian manufactured inventory (reserved) - 417
This does not count the strategic reserve held off the market by Royal Canadian Air Force - 1300 tickets - or held by companies that exist but are currently not trading.

In other words companies are holding back more inventory in hopes of a price spike when there is a major troop deployment. That withheld inventory more than makes up for the loss of inventory from the foreign companies most of which is held by two companies and priced above the average price for tickets priced under $10. No change in the Import Tax rate is going to change prices because the foreign companies aren't driving the prices in the way that they did in the past.

I'm not saying that the change in the tax won't reduce inventory - either in real terms by forcing the forcing companies to remove their offers or by raising them above the $10 price. Nor am I saying that cutthroat pricing won't force some companies to close or at least leave manufacturing for a time: I've recently laid off all but two "zombie" employees to wait for the next big boom in the market.

And there's the root of the problem the industry faces - the "boom and bust" nature of the industry which is unique amongst business. When I started recording inventory data on November 17th there were 20 active companies in the industry, including 5 foreign companies, offering a total inventory of 391 tickets. This was after a major deployment. On November 20 there were 633 tickets on the market when I first checked the totals, that dropped in 15 hours to 478. On that day the average price (including the companies priced over the $10 line) went from $10.21 to $11.65, and the market low price went from $5.59 to $6.33. I expect to see a contraction in the market as companies lay off workers and are put up for sale...until the next time we see a boom where inventory suddenly drops and company owners are left scrambling to reactivate their businesses. Then the whole cycle will begin again because that's the nature of the industry.