Eli Lustgarten of ESL Consultants Inc. matched the mostly positive outlook that Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trend Research had, as was discussed in my blog post from yesterday.
Lustgarten told attendees that manufacturing continues to recover in the U.S. and he said that global economies generally fell into three groups in 2012. He broke them down as follows:
Surprising strength: U.S., Canada, Germany—but they are slowing
Soft landing with bigger downside risks: China, Brazil, India
Europe: Currency/sovereign/bank risk feeding recession
Lustgarten also provided year over year manufacturing statistics for the U.S., which continued in a positive direction.
Year over year:
2005 4.0%
2006 2.5%
2007 2.7%
2008 -4.8%
2009 -13.8%
2010 5.7%
2011 3.6%
2012 4.2%
2013E 2.8%
2014E 4.1%
And beyond that, he was even more positive. “If we can survive the next 12 to 18 months, there is a very optimistic 3 to 5 year outlook,” he said.
Eric Lanke, CEO of the NFPA, also updated the crowd, discussing the organizations’ three strategic goals:
1. Education — “Build and connect our members to an educated fluid power workplace.” Lanke discussed how the group is focusing on the fluid power challenge, growth in educator membership, STEM work, and support of the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP). NFPA is also holding a regional fluid power career fair on November 6 in Pleasant Prairie, Wis.
2. Technology — “Promote fluid power technology and foster an innovative environment for the fluid power industry.” Lanke said the Fluid Power Systems Conference (formerly known as the Energy Efficient Hydraulics & Pneumatics Conference) will be held November 19-21 near Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Additional directives in this area include the IFPE show (next in March 2014) and the IFPE Fluid Power Zone, recently created to co-locate with the IMTS in Chicago. Lanke noted that while IFPE is a good show for the mobile market, due to its co-loaction with CON-AGG/CONEXPO, the IMTS partnerships given companies a better exposure to the industrial market. He also mentioned that IFPE 2014 will be the largest IFPE ever.
3. Inclusiveness — “Serve as a forum where all fluid power channel partners work together.” Lanke said that the association now represents the whole fluid power supply chain, as opposed to the days when manufacturers were the sole focus. Members now include distributors, suppliers, educators and customers. He also encouraged attendees to attend the NFPA’s annual conference, which will be held February 3-5 at the Eau Palm Beach, in Palm Beach, Fla.
