More Reasons to be Bullish about Manufacturing

Posted on by

Forbes Blog nails this one folks!

value_added-large — No questions from me.

According to John Bruner:” In 2010, American manufacturers added value of $1.7 trillion to the U.S. economy, up 6.6% over the previous year after accounting for inflation. By the same measure, the rest of the economy grew by 2.2%.

You might not know it from public commentary, but the United States manufactures more than any other country (including China), and U.S. factories are within reach of their all-time greatest output.”

In 2007, the last year for which we were able to find Census Data, 3,296 companies in NAICS 332721, Precision Machining, produced over $15,054,173,000 in shipments.

PMPA’s Business Trends Index for July (historically a seasonally slow month) is 111, justone point off from the average for 2007 our peak year before the recession.

So when you hear all that steamy doom and gloom on those TV shows, well

: Instead of listening to the guy behind all that steam and smoke

Just take a look at the data!

For the full Forbes Blog click here

Forbes Blog Manufacturing Bruner

OZ picture

The Size of U.S. Precision Machining Industry

Posted on by

The Precision Machined Products Association is proud to serve its member companies in the precision machining industry.

Variety of small parts — Parts that make technologies work!

We know the value that is added by our industry to our everyday lives: Ground and Aerospace Transportation, Safety, Appliances, Food Packaging, Tools, Off Road Equipment, Medical Devices- all of these markets rely on products made by precision machining shops to make their technologies work.
We are excited to provide information, resources, and networking opportunities that advance and sustain our members.
The precision machining industry is known to the statisticians in Washington, D.C. as NAICS 332721: Precision Machining.
Precision machining is defined this way: “This U.S. industry comprises establishments known as precision turned manufacturers primarily engaged in machining precision products of all materials on a job or order basis. Generally precision turned product jobs are large-volume using machines such as automatic screw machines, rotary transfer machines, computer numerically controlled (CNC) lathes or turning centers.”
The last year for which the U.S. Census shows data for our industry is 2006. That year, there were 2,528 firms and 2,582 establishments. The figures tell us that there are few multi-site precision machining companies in the United States.
Our industry employed about 76,640 men and women to make highly engineered, precision products in 2006. Our products typically are components of some other device (like a car, airplane, satellite, appliance or cell phone). They are not finished products that you would expect to buy at a store. Our parts are the technologies that make the other technologies work. That’s because we can produce to high precision and in the needed quantities.
What is the bottom line for this industry? The latest data for Value of Product Shipments of NAICS 332721 is for 2005. The precision machining industry created $9,791,795,000 of product shipments that year.
That’s $9.8 billion of sales.
For more info, read our article in Production Machining Magazine here.

Manufacturing Growth Confirmed by December Data

Posted on by

The December ISM Purchasing Managers Report confirms that manufacturing continues its recovery and growth – the PMI was up 2.3 points to 55.9%.
“The manufacturing sector grew for the fifth consecutive month in December as the PMI rose to 55.9 percent, its highest reading since April 2006 when it registered 56 percent. This month’s report is quite strong as both the New Orders and Production Indexes are above 60 percent. The sector may be benefiting from an excessive destocking cycle as indicated by the recent performance of the Customers’ Inventories Index. Customers’ inventories have been ‘too low’ for nine consecutive months, and this month’s index is the lowest reading since the inception of the index in January 1997. Overall, the recovery in manufacturing is continuing, but there are still some industries mired in the downturn as evidenced by the seven industries still in decline.”
Fabricated Metal Products (NAICS 332)* is one of those seven industries “still mired in the downturn.” In December the fabricated metals respondents reported decreases in backlog, employment, customer inventories, and lower prices for materials. On the bright side, both production and export orders grew for this sector in December 2009.

winter woods adj — Fabricated metals may not be out of the woods yet, but...

We may not be out of the woods yet as an industry, but the sustained low employment and low customer inventories for our industry tell me that the overtime production machine will be gearing up and starting to hum for many of our shops this month.
Bottom Line: Dr. Ken Mayland of Clearview Economics had this to say about the ISM Composite Report for December:
“…if the current reading were to be sustained, that would be consistent with 4.6% real GDP growth. Folks: that’s “good” growth!”
* Precision Machining Industry is NAICS 332721, and thus a segment of Fabricated Metal Products Sector.