03/10/2016

LIFE SCIENCES AND AUTOMOTIVE MARKETS TOP RATED MARKETS IN JANUARY, ACCORDING TO CLEVEAND RESEARCH

Cleveland Research reports continued weak conditions across fluid power markets in January as oil & gas weakness continues to weigh on the broader industrial market. Based on current order and backlog trends they expect the underlying market to remain relatively unchanged in the near term although declines should moderate as comparisons get easier beginning in calendar 2Q.

The January survey had 31 respondents comprised of 24 distributors and 7 manufacturing firms.

Highlights of the report include:

• The January FPDA Index produced a reading of 2, up from 45.5 in December while the broader ISM was 48.2 in January, up from 48.0 in December.
• Sales in the January fluid power survey declined 10%, marginally better than the 11% decline in However, January was helped by an easier comparison and offset to some degree by an extra working day last year.
• The 2016 outlook continues to be forecast down 2%, but we see potential for further downside if consumer verticals come under pressure from a broader economic
• Inventory levels declined meaningfully in January with a net 34% of contacts reporting inventories were lower vs last month, the most significant sequential decline in the history of our survey going back to
• From an end market perspective, 5 out of 17 end markets ranked in positive territory in January, up from 2 in On a sequential basis 15 markets were reported stronger, a reversal from December, with mining and oil & gas the only two markets to deteriorate vs last month. Life sciences and automotive and were the top rated markets in January while oil & gas kept the bottom spot followed by mining.

See the full report here.