This Thomas Index Report is sponsored by Nelipak® Healthcare Packaging, a full-service global provider of custom thermoformed packaging that provides superior protection for medical devices and pharmaceuticals.
Hello again. This week we’re going to take a look at sourcing activity for Medical Equipment & Supplies by users of the Thomasnet.com platform. Our data shows that over the past 12 weeks, sourcing activity for this category is up 11% over its historical average.
The medical industry in the US is massive, with total healthcare expenditures expected to reach $3.78 trillion in 2018 alone. In what some refer to as the “silver tsunami,” the aging baby boom generation has pushed the population of folks age 65 and up to more than 50 million Americans for the first time in history, and that number is projected to reach over 70 million in the next quarter century.
As an aging population requires increased medical care, this demographic wave promises to drive huge continued growth in the healthcare industry for the foreseeable future. That growth is already well underway – according to Yahoo Finance, the industry added 302,000 jobs so far in 2018 alone.
A potential obstacle for growth in the medical equipment & supplies market, at least in the short term, is the nearly $5 billion in retaliatory tariffs China has placed on US-made medical devices. As the current trade war continues, we’ll keep an eye on what our data shows in terms of any impact those tariffs may be having on sourcing activity in the category.
In addition to Medical Equipment & Supplies, our data also shows that sourcing activity is up 10% or more in the related categories of Surgical Instruments, Used & Refurbished Medical Equipment, and Medical Tubing.
Moving on from medical, here’s a look at the top 10 industrial product and service categories being sourced on the Thomasnet.com platform over the past four weeks:
- Steel
- CNC Machining
- Lumber
- Printed Circuit Boards
- Metal Fabrication
- Injection Molded Plastics
- Metal Stamping
- Corrugated Boxes
- Food Products
- Plastic Bottles
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Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.