One of the factors affecting the current recovery is that so much of the boom was fueled by credit and borrowing. In the book Accelerating Out of the Great Recession by David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter, the authors go into great detail to dicuss the current recovery and how it has been affected by the credit crisis.
They are calling this a slow growth recovery. For our industry, we have seen various rates of growth depending on the end use market. It appears that some of the mobile markets are doing very well in 2010 while some industrial markets are slower to recover.
At any rate, a movement in the right direction is welcomed. The Institute for Supply Manangement reported yesterday that the U.S. manufacturing sector grew for the 10th consecutive month. They also claim that the overall economy has grown for 13 consecutive months. Despite a slight decline from April, the Manufacturing Index remained at a lofty 59.7 for May.
These appear to be very good reports for manufacturers and distributors of fluid power components. Couple this with the data presented by Jim Meil of Eaton Corporation on the recent NFPA webcast and we do have reason for optimism.
This trend is verified by the many fluid power manufacturers who I have had discussions with this year. The overall trend for fluid power sales and orders is positive for 2010 and optimistic for continued growth.
So, even a slow-growth economy is working for our industry. I believe that we will keep our momentum going throughout the year and into next year.
