One of the many highlights of the 2011 NAHAD Annual Meeting & Convention was the economic information presented by speaker James P. Meil, Vice President and Chief Economist at Eaton Corporation. His presentation covered many Key Points on the Global Economy.
In particular, the good news showed a very positive U.S. Macroeconomic Outlook. The projected GDP for 2011 was given as 3.1 with another 3.3 for 2012. This is encouraging because we all want to see an extended recovery after the Great Recession. In addition, Mr. Meil reported that the ISM Purchasing Managers' Index is currently listed at about 62+ which is indicates confidence in our current recovery.
Keep in mind that NAHAD is an association that serves all kinds of industrial hose and accessories companies of which fluid power hose and accessories are significant part. With that said, Mr. Meil also gave some interesting figures for the fluid power industry. One in particular showed that U.S. total fluid power orders and shipments have posted an increase in access of 40% for the year ending December 2010. During that same period, hydrualics shipments increased by 52.2%. Pneumatic shipments are up 26.3%.
Even though the Great Recession hit the fluid power industry hard and the shipments and orders numbers took a deep dive, the recovery is still great. It appears that there is no slow down in sight for fluid power. This is great news for our industry.
