PMPA Business Trends September 2023

PMPA’s September Business Trends Report  shows that our industry sales are leveling, and our shops are making rational, measured adjustments to maintain their capabilities and profitability.  Despite all of the uncertainty in our markets, we remain on track for our third best year ever for Sales dollars! Only outlook for Employment prospects softened in September. The data shows PMPA shops are doing a great job of managing in the current environment.

 
If you are not currently participating in PMPA’s Monthly Business Trends reporting, you are missing an excellent peer benchmark and a tool to provide you with confidence for your business decisions. Contact Veronica Durden to sign up.

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PMPA Business Trends August 2023

Sales for the Precision Machining Industry rebounded  up 20 points or 16 percent in August, following the typical July – August recovery pattern we see most years. Our rebound dwarfed the 0.4 percent increase in Industrial Production reported by the FED, and we remain on track to reach our year end forecast- indeed we are with in 2 percent as of this month’s report. Sentiment indicators show Sales and Employment remaining level despite the UAW strike, while Lead Times increased. We’ll let you determine why sentiment for Profitability is down- you would not be far wrong if you looked at Washington DC for that. It is easy to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed  by negative news and headlines, but when we put our data in rows and columns, (data from 75 respondents this month) it is telling us that things are still going well for us in precision manufacturing. What does your data tell you?

 
If you are not currently participating in PMPA’s Monthly Business Trends reporting, you are missing an excellent peer benchmark and a tool to provide you with confidence for your business decisions. Contact Veronica Durden to sign up.

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PMPA Business Trends July 2023

The PMPA Business Trends Sales Index declined 27 points or 18 percent to 127 in July 2023. On first look, this appears to be a stunning reversal of fortunes for our shops in July. However, a critical reading of the figures and placing them in context allows us to see this as a somewhat larger than typical June to July “respite” in our operations, and typical for the season. We still appear to be solidly on track for calendar year sales to come in between the calendar year 2021 and 2022 performance.

This outsize move, out of context, appears to be substantial, however, our YTD average is within 2 percent of our forecasted calendar year average, despite the outsized decline in July. We remain positive and optimistic. PMPA’s sentiment indicators are positive for Sales, level for Profitability, and declining for Employment and Lead Times.

 
If you are not currently participating in PMPA’s Monthly Business Trends reporting, you are missing an excellent peer benchmark and a tool to provide you with confidence for your business decisions. Contact Veronica Durden to sign up.

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PMPA Business Trends June 2023

The PMPA June Business Trends Report  shows that precision manufacturing continues to operate at a strong level of activity,  up 3.3 percent from last month and with outlook remaining level for the next three months for sales and profitability. Prospects for employment increased in June, and our shops continue to strongly outperform Macroeconomic indicators such as PMI, Industrial Production, and Manufacturing Output. PMPA’s monthly index at 155 would have been the second highest level ever for our sales had it occurred prior to last year.  Sales are on track year to date to come in squarely between 2021 and 2022 levels of sales. These are the good old days…

 
If you are not currently participating in PMPA’s Monthly Business Trends reporting, you are missing an excellent peer benchmark and a tool to provide you with confidence for your business decisions. Contact Veronica Durden to sign up.

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PMPA Business Trends May 2023

PMPA’s May Business Trends report shows the sales this year to be midway between calendar year 2021 and 2022 performance.  The Sales index is up 10 points or 7.5 percent over April, 2023. We are optimistic that our shops can sustain this level of performance for the balance of the year. PMPA’s May index- at 150- is the thirteenth highest Business Trends reading ever. We continue to outperform Industrial Production, Durable Goods,  and various PMI indicators for manufacturing.

 
If you are not currently participating in PMPA’s Monthly Business Trends reporting, you are missing an excellent peer benchmark and a tool to provide you with confidence for your business decisions. Contact Veronica Durden to sign up.

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PMPA Business Trends April 2023

The PMPA monthly Business Trends Report for April dropped 17 percent to 140, the second highest level for April ever. Typically the Index declines between March and April on average by about 10.8 percent, so this decline was an overachievement. That said, the 140 value for April 2023 is up 10.8 points or 7.7 percent above the five-year average for April, and down just one point from the calendar year average for 2021, our second highest year ever.

Sentiment indicators were unsettled in April, except for Employment which increased in April, with 92 percent of respondents expecting employment to remain level or increase for the coming three months.

While the size and direction of the Sales index and Sentiment indicators are larger than expected, we see them as  “within expectations,” considering how long and how high our sales activities have been for the past couple of years.

PMPA members can also view the 2023 calendar year sales forecast. Driven by a powerful correlation to sales, this forecast will give you some mooring for your expectations as we go through what is certain to be a high volatility, high uncertainty year in our markets.

 
If you are not currently participating in PMPA’s Monthly Business Trends reporting, you are missing an excellent peer benchmark and a tool to provide you with confidence for your business decisions. Contact Veronica Durden to sign up.

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