PMA releases Business Conditions Report for October 2011.
Press Release Summary:
According to October 2011 Business Conditions Report, metalforming companies in U.S. and Canada predict slight dip in business conditions during next 3 months. Report shows that 24% of participants expect activity to decline, up from 22% in September, and 29% predict decrease in orders, up from 20% in September. However, average daily shipping levels continued to trend upward, with 38% of participants reporting that shipping levels are above levels of 3 months ago, up from 33% in September.
Original Press Release:
Business Conditions Report: October 2011
CLEVELAND, OH - According to the October 2011 Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report, metalforming companies predict a slight dip in business conditions during the next three months. Conducted monthly, the report is an economic indicator for manufacturing, sampling 127 metalforming companies in the United States and Canada.
The October report shows that 20% of participants expect economic activity to improve during the next three months (down from 24% in September), 56% predict that activity will remain unchanged (compared to 54% last month) and 24% report that activity will decline (up from 22% in September).
Metalforming companies also expect a decline in incoming orders during the next three months, with 29% predicting a decrease in orders (up from 20% in September), 45% anticipating no change (compared to 47% last month) and only 26% predicting an increase in orders (down from 33% in September).
However, average daily shipping levels continued to trend upward in October. Thirty-eight percent of participants report that shipping levels are above levels of three months ago (up from 33% in September), 44% report that shipping levels are the same as three months ago (compared to 40% last month), and 18% report a decrease in shipping levels (compared to 27% in September).
The percentage of metalforming companies with a portion of their workforce on short time or layoff dropped to 8% in October, down from 12% in September. This number is at its lowest level since October 2007, when companies also reported 8% of their workforce on short time or layoff.
"PMA's manufacturing member companies are less optimistic this month about business conditions for Q-4 than they were in September," observed William E. Gaskin, PMA president. "Economic uncertainty caused by the lack of leadership in Washington, D. C., ongoing concern about the strength of the European banking system and the failure of the private sector to create sufficient jobs to reduce unemployment levels below 9 percent are largely responsible for the cautious outlook. For the first 8 months of 2011, average industry shipments increased by 10 percent compared to the same period in 2010, demonstrating underlying strength in the metalforming sector."
The monthly Business Conditions Report has been conducted by PMA since 1979. Full report results are available at pma.org/public/business_reports/pdf/BCREP.pdf. PMA is the full-service trade association representing the $113-billion metalforming industry of North America-the industry that creates precision metal products using stamping, fabricating, spinning, slide forming and roll forming technologies, and other value-added processes. Its nearly 1,000 member companies also include suppliers of equipment, materials and services to the industry. PMA leads innovative member companies toward superior competitiveness and profitability through advocacy, networking, statistics, the PMA Educational Foundation, FABTECH and METALFORM tradeshows, and MetalForming magazine.
