The good times continue to roll

By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 9/1/2000

Fueled by factors like product innovations and higher automobile production rates, the U.S. industrial belt market grew in 1999 by about four-and-a-half percent, with further gains expected this year.

A recent Frost & Sullivan U.S. Belt Drive Components Market study pegged 1998 U.S. sales of industrial belting at $757.9 million and 1999 revenues at $792 million. Sales in 2000 are projected to increase by nearly five percent to approximately $831 million.

Michael Rasche, a senior industry analyst at the San Jose, Calif.-based marketing consulting and training company, says the study quantifies shipments in four major belting segments: flat, V, synchronous timing and variable speed.

"Overall, companies are looking for ways to increase productivity and efficiency," Rasche says.

The study also tracked strong aftermarket sales due to poor equipment maintenance and low repair costs. The anticipated upturn in Asian economies, particularly in terms of sales of agricultural products, is another cause for optimism. Rasche says supplies of agricultural products were up in 1997 when the Asian flu hit, but agricultural companies didn't slow production rates. The resulting global oversupply of product is just now starting to abate.

"Demand is picking up as Asian governments look to increase their purchases of those products," Rasche says. "We're expecting for that swing to be in full effect in 2002."

Larry Cain, president of Fresno-based California Industrial Rubber Co., says the market for agricultural belting is growing, in part, because of the increase in specialized food processing systems.

Tom Richardson, president of Burr Ridge, Ill.-based Conveyor Accessories, Inc., a manufacturer that sells about a third of its product internationally, says the increase in federally-funded road projects has been good for business. Federal law mandates that a certain percentage of recycled material should be used in construction.

"All these little surface projects where they're replacing bridges and re-excavating highways, they use [material from] recycling plants," Richardson says.

Yet while the study foresees sunny skies ahead for belting sales, potential clouds on the horizon include the economic shift to a service-based economy, a transition to overseas mining and users replacing belt drives with direct drive systems.