A few weeks back I learned about a new metalcasting venture, but I let the "news" take precedent. The fact that McWane Inc. is temporarily idling a foundry in Birmingham due to weak demand from the home-building sector seemed to be more important than the fact that the same company had started off in a new direction. In truth, it probably was the clever work of a publicity person to let the two items come to light at almost the same time — softening the blow of the bad news and underplaying the significance of the new venture, so as not to overstate its positive impact on the company.

Note, too, that McWane is a company that almost never gets sympathetic treatment from news reporters. The people there probably know better than to issue a stand-alone "good news" report: the local news reporters understand too little and suspect too much about the business to expect them to see the value of such a development.

But, credit McWane for its creativity and foresight to start something new, and promising, in the midst of a miserable business cycle. The story linked above describes the two-year development process, as well as the product roll-out and its performance so far. Producing ductile iron poles as an alternative to wood, concrete, or fiberglass for supporting overhead electrical lines may not be the most innovative application of casting technology, but it gives the company a new angle on the municipal and construction markets on which it relies so heavily with its pipe products. More important, it shows that the engineers there understand the material that their business is built upon, and the customers that they can appeal to with their products.

"We have seen a decline in sales in many of our core businesses and we have had to respond with reductions in production to match the lower demand levels," according to McWane Global president Michael Keel. "McWane is financially very strong, however, and now that we have adjusted we are performing well in this new environment."

As of now, more than 50 utility companies have adopted the cast iron poles, and if more follow it's a fair bet that more ferrous foundries will enter into the market. They can copy McWane, but they'd do even better to mimic the creativity and determination that caused McWane to develop a new line of business. And then, to hope other foundries might want to copy them, too.