U.S., Canadian motion control sales increase

According to the Power Transmission Distributors Association’s (PTDA) Market Outlook Report, U.S. and Canadian manufacturers’ sales increased for the second consecutive month in February. U.S. manufacturers posted an increase of 14.1 percent and Canadian manufacturers’ sales rising by 5.6 percent. 

For U.S. manufacturers, sales comparisons between February 2010 and February 2009 still reflect sales declines.  U.S. manufacturers’ year-to-date sales are down 9.0 percent compared to sales at this time last year. Canadian manufacturers’ year-to-year sales rose by 0.3 percent for the same period.

U.S. manufacturers’ confidence maintained a neutral position of 5.0 on a scale of 1 (very pessimistic) to 10 (outstanding). Canadian manufacturers’ confidence rose to 4.8 from 4.6 in February. 

Among Canadian manufacturers (product sales from January 2010 to February 2010), variable speed drives and shaft couplings saw the largest decreases at -36.2 percent and -30.2 percent respectively. In addition, gear products experienced a -6.7 percent decline.

However, positioning systems/linear motion products had the largest increase at 31.5 percent, followed by clutches & brakes at 24.7 percent and mechanical drive systems and other PT products at 18.7 percent. Lastly, unmounted bearings saw a 9.3 percent up tick and mounted bearings sales increased by 7.4 percent.
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