Tag: Fiscal Cliff
The PMPA Business Trends Report 2012 Year End Review and Summary is completed and posted on our website here.
Despite a great start for sales in the industry at the beginning of the year, the special causes of the uncertainty leading up to the election and the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ took the wind out of our sails sales, resulting in 2012 sales index barely equalling that of 2011.
For a host of specifics, and our outlook for important precision machining markets in 2013, please see our report.
October’s numbers, while up from September’s, are discouraging to our forecast of industry sales for 2012. With seasonal declines already built into November and December, we believe that the Industry will be fortunate to come in even with last year. Add in the global economic slowdown, fiscal cliff, and we believe that dreams of 2012 shipments beating 2011 are not in the cards.
You can read our October 2012 Business Trends Report here.
We had expected shipments of Precision Machined Products to increase 8% over 2011, based on First Quarter 2012 Shipments.
We believe that special causes- uncertainty regarding the November election and the upcoming fiscal cliff- derailed the strong demand for manufactured goods after August.
Now everyone’s eyes are glued to reports of Housing recovery as a good omen, but sales to that sector are a small part of our industry’s demand.
I’m thinking coal in our stockings thanks to the shenanigans in Washington.