February 14, 2012

February 13, 2012

With fewer economic data points released last week, attention turned to the situation in Greece. Even with new austerity measures and debt restructuring plans, worries abound about the possibility of default and, more importantly, the larger implications for the entire Eurozone. Equity markets around the world reflect these anxieties about the European sovereign debt crisis. Manufacturers are closely following these developments, with nearly half of them in a recent survey suggesting that Europe's challenges have impacted their sales. Indeed, manufactured goods exports have slowed recently in large part because of weakness in the European market. Economic uncertainty also worries the American public. Despite improvements in recent employment and production numbers, the latest consumer confidence figures from the University of Michigan fell slightly on weakened perceptions about the current economic environment. A similar falloff in sentiment was observed in the most recent consumer survey from the Conference Board. Nonetheless, consumers are clearly more optimistic today than last fall, and they continue to spend, albeit more selectively than some might prefer. The challenge is that much of this spending has been with borrowers' dollars. This was confirmed last week with the Federal Reserve's report of a surge in additional indebtedness. On a more positive note, manufacturers have stepped up hiring in the past couple of months. Job openings in December were up for both the manufacturing sector and the economy as a whole. There were 35,000 net new manufacturing hires in the month of December, an improvement from November's 19,000. (Note that labor turnover data are reported with a lag, so the strong employment gains of January are not included in this analysis.) While employment levels remain well below where they should be, these numbers are obviously welcome news. This week, we will learn more about recent manufacturing activity, with new industrial production figures and surveys from the Federal Reserve Banks in New York and Philadelphia. These reports are expected to show continued growth among manufacturers. In addition, the latest housing data are predicted to show additional residential construction in January, building off recent incremental gains. Finally, we will obtain the latest data on retail sales, inflation and small business sentiment. Chad Moutray  Chief Economist National Association of Manufacturers

TOP 4 SUPPLY MANAGEMENT TRENDS IMPACTING FINANCE

Quick Manufacturing News Companies are realizing that the purchase price of a product or service doesn't represent the comprehensive cost to their organization and are taking steps to proactively capture these other supplier-related costs. Additional costs often range from direct material costs and manufacturing-related fees like delivery, storage and packaging to indirect goods Cap Ex costs like installation, maintenance and adding new workforce skills, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Click to continue

WORKERS' COMP WOES: INJURED WORKERS AND OPIATE ADDICTION

Quick Manufacturing News A workers' compensation insurance holding company has established a narcotics program to address the problem of injured workers developing opiate addictions that make them unable to return to work in a timely fashion -- or at all. Click to continue

CHINA VOWS TO PURSUE BALANCED TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES

Quick Manufacturing News China's Vice President Xi Jinping likely will face a barrage of complaints when he visits the United States in the coming week. Click to continue

INDUSTRIAL CEO OPTIMISM BASED ON COST CONTROLS

Quick Manufacturing News Nearly four-fifths of industrial manufacturing CEOs are somewhat, or very, confident of revenue growth over the next 12 months, although just 18% believe the global economy will improve, according to PwC's annual Global CEO Survey. Click to continue

SLOWER MACHINE TOOL ORDERS DAMPEN EU FORECAST

Quick Manufacturing News The German Machine Tool Builders' Association reported its members' new orders fell 4% for the fourth quarter of 2011, versus the last quarter of 2010. It was the first quarterly decline in two years. Click to continue

RETAIL SALES REBOUND IN JANUARY
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Americans rebounded from a weak holiday season and stepped up spending on retail goods in January, an encouraging sign for the strengthening economy …  CONTINUE

2011 WAS STRONGEST YEAR FOR U.S. MACHINE TOOL ORDERS IN A DECADE

Quick Manufacturing News Domestic orders for machine tools and related technology rose 12.2% from November to December, and 12.7% from December 2010. Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT -- the Association for Manufacturing Technology, called 2011 the 'strongest year in more than a decade (for orders of machine tools) as manufacturing led the U.S. recovery into 2012.' Click to continue

BLAKEY: PENTAGON BUDGET WOULD BE A 'DIRECT HIT' TO AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE INDUSTRY

Quick Manufacturing News Some 350,000 jobs hang in the balance, asserts the head of the Aerospace Industries Association. Click to continue

CONVEYOR ORDERS ENDED 2011 UP 34% OVER 2010

Quick Manufacturing News The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association reported that its December 2011 Booked Orders Index was 213, up 64 points or 43% from November 2011's Index of 149. The December index represents an increase of 34% from the December 2010 Index of 159. Click to continue

USING SOCIAL NETWORKING TO MEASURE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Quick Manufacturing News Online surveillance of social networking sites has become the latest tool in the arsenal of techniques for measuring and predicting customer buying behavior. Click to continue