The sixth edition of the Metalworking Trends Survey report has recently been released. Take a look to see a snapshot of current trends in the North American metalworking industry.
The sixth edition of the Metalworking Trends Survey report has recently been released. Published by Techspex, a helpful online machine research tool, and LoSasso Inc., an integrated marketing agency located in Chicago, the 2012 survey report offers a snapshot of current trends in the North American metalworking industry.
The survey was emailed in February to a broad cross section of the metalworking industry, including job shops, contract shops, OEMs and other manufacturers. There were 1012 surveys completed.
Here are a few points culled from the report’s Executive Summary:
• An impressive 83 percent of respondents said they are expecting to grow in the coming year.
• Oil/gas and oil shale mining jumped to the top of the list of industries expected to grow the most in the next two to three years, followed by medical, solar and wind energy.
• Only 17 percent of all companies were down over the last year, and more than half of those were 10-person or smaller shops.
• In the second year surveying machine tool purchase drivers, brand and upgrading technology were again considered the most important influencers.
• Again this year, purchasing faster equipment and multi-function machines in addition to reorganizing the shop floor were the top three process-related changes that had the most positive impact.
