Sales up, outlook solid in PT market
By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 12/1/2000
As the economy continues on its steady pace, the U.S. power transmission market is seeing healthy sales increases compared to 1999. From January through August, sales increased between 6.7 and 8.2 percent each month over 1999 figures, according to the Power Transmission Distributors Assn.'s monthly Market Outlook report. That follows a year of declines and marginal increases in 1999.
Mary Sue Lyon, PTDA executive vice president, agrees that this year is turning out better than last for her members, although she says it's also been a "spikey" year for the industry.
"They're certainly having a better year than last year," said Lyon, following the association's 40th Annual Convention in October. But she added that many members are "a little concerned about not seeing strong patterns of growth."
In August, distributors participating in the PTDA survey reported a 13.9 percent sales increase over the previous month. Sales were up 11.8 percent over August 1999 and up 7.5 percent for the year. On a scale of one to 10-one being "very pessimistic" and 10 being "outstanding"-distributors rated their confidence as 6.1
Results for the U.S. manufacturing community were similar. Participating manufacturers reported an 18 percent rise in August sales compared to the previous month. Sales were up 7.8 percent compared to August 1999 and up 7.1 percent for the year. The manufacturers' confidence index was 6.2.
For Canadian distributors, August sales were down 4.4 percent compared to July, though figures were up 36.8 percent over August 1999 and up 26.2 percent year to date. The confidence index for Canadian distributors registered a solid seven.
Canadian manufacturers saw August sales rise seven percent over July, while sales were up 10.2 percent over August 1999. Sales were up 11.7 percent for Canadian manufacturers for the year and their confidence index registered 6.1.
The Power Transmission Distributors Assn. has set up a task force to develop e-commerce standards for the power transmission/motion control industry. The effort is in response to the growth of e-commerce and its potential impact on the PT/MC industry.
The PTDA E-Commerce Standards Task Force is working on several initiatives. The first task is to establish universal product identification and description standards for major product categories manufactured and sold by PTDA members.
Once the draft standards are produced, they will be circulated to PTDA member firms for comments prior to finalization. Eventually, the task force plans to develop guidelines for relaying product information between trading partners.
All of the standards "are on a fast-track pace since the potential impact of e-commerce on the PT/MC industry is enormous," said Mary Sue Lyon, PTDA executive vice president. "The development of uniform standards will maximize the adoption and benefits of e-commerce, particularly to PTDA distributor members."
Technology consultant Steve Epner, of BSW Consulting, is working with PTDA on the project. The task force is made up of 18 e-commerce and information technology executives from PTDA distributor and manufacturer firms.
The committee's objectives are to: determine support for standards and/or an industry data warehouse for maintaining information; determine the level of consistency in manufacturer/distributor product identification information exchange; investigate other industry models for standards/data warehouse development; develop a cost-benefit analysis for standardization; determine the level of e-commerce initiatives in the PT/MC industry; and develop generic product attribute identifiers.
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