Manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. experienced modest growth in sales of power transmission/motion control products, despite an overall slowing of sales in the market.
In releasing 2008 year-end sales data for distributors and manufacturers of power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) products, the Power Transmission Distributors Association reported that U.S. distributors and manufacturers experienced overall growth in sales in 2008 while their Canadian counterparts experienced a decline in sales. Confidence in the market has eroded overall, holding a current neutral position between 4.6 and 5.2 versus a range of 5.0 to 5.8, on a 10-point scale with 10 being high, at year-end 2007.
Growth in sales of PT/MC products is definitely slowing, the report indicated. Following a moderate growth rate of 6.6 percent in 2007, U.S. distributors saw a 4.3% increase in PT/MC product sales in 2008. The annualized sales-to-inventory ratio for 2008 was at 6.5, compared to 7.6 in 2007.
Canadian distributors ended the year with a drop in sales, the first loss since 2001.
U.S. manufacturers of PT/MC products experienced year-to-date sales growth of 3.8% in 2008, off slightly from the 4.1% growth rate posted for 2007. Year-to-date orders of PT/MC products for U.S. manufacturers, however, were down 2.2% in 2008 versus 1.0% growth for 2007. The annualized sales-to-inventory ratio dropped slightly from 10.0 at year-end 2007 to 9.7 at year-end 2008.
Canadian manufacturers’ sales suffered in 2008, with a decrease in sales of 7.4% for 2008 following relatively flat results in 2007.
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