Early on this month, we recognized National Manufacturing Day, a holiday created to celebrate those who proudly stand behind our goods and services in America. Despite not actually manufacturing products ourselves, we supply thousands of manufactured goods to companies around the world and across the country, and proudly support our suppliers and manufacturing partners.
It’s been a crazy ride, these past few years, with COVID and it’s ripple of after effects like factory shutdowns, shipping delays, tariffs, supply chain woes etc. etc. As an essential business, we never shut our doors during the pandemic. We helped safely deliver vaccines to the U.S. in time of need. We worked from home, from the office, from home again and a combination of which ever situation worked best for our team.
As the pandemic lessened, manufacturing in 2021 grew stronger. Con-tech stayed the course, staying profitable and even growing our product lines. Our customers relied on us to find a way to get their products to them and our experienced team did just that. Gratitude was what we felt for our customers and suppliers and partners and friends who also stayed the course and stayed with us.
Now we’re facing Q4 and forecasting for 2023. We’re listening to what is happening in the marketplace and what manufacturers are saying and doing. This year has been excellent as well, but we know that changes are coming once again. We continue to service our customers while searching for other markets that might need our products and are looking for solutions to their packaging needs.
The Institute for Supply Management’s latest report on the manufacturing sector shows industry held on to growth despite a serious drop in demand for manufactured goods. In its September survey, released October 3, the ISM said its PMI for manufacturing growth dropped from 52.8% to 50.9%, a drop of 1.9 points and the index’s lowest point since May 2020.
Of the three main indexes used to calculate the PMI, two—new orders and employment—dropped, while the third, production, rose slightly. The ISM’s new orders index fell from 51.3% to 47.1%, returning to contraction after one month of growth in August, and the employment index fell 5.5 points to 48.7%. The production index, meanwhile, rose by one-fifth of a percentage point to 50.6%, sustaining its 28-month growth streak alongside the main index. The World Trade Organization said it expects trade growth to fall to 1% in 2023, compared with its previous forecast of 3.4%, according to a latest report.
It’s about finding a balance that staves off any sort of a recession and keeps business flowing. Balance, continuance, perseverance. At Con-tech, we’ve been following these business practices for decades and will continue to do so regardless of which way the market moves. We will continue to support and celebrate our manufacturing partners this month and every month.