Latest from Mag

Plenty of executive appointments over the past two weeks. Here’s Electrical Marketing’s expanded coverage of personnel changes in the electrical market.
Dec. 21, 2012
Wire man John Pasqual and lighting rep Jack Melnick
Dec. 21, 2012
Image
Electrical product prices remained on their flat trend, showing no change from October and little change in almost all major product categories.
Dec. 21, 2012
Image
Privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 861,000, 3% below the revised October estimate, but 21.6% above the Nov. 2011 rate.
Dec. 21, 2012
Dec. 21, 2012
Veteran reps form new agency in Raleigh; WinWholesale buys Lloyd Graves in Texas; United Electric Supply expands through acquisition; and more.
Dec. 21, 2012
W.W. Grainger Inc., Lake Forest, Ill., announced plans to purchase Techni-Tool Inc., Worcester, Pa., a 200-plus employee distributor supplying customers in the cable television...
Dec. 21, 2012
Kaman Industrial Technologies (KIT), the industrial distribution business Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., has built up in recent acquisitions of Minarik, Zeller Electric and others...
Dec. 21, 2012
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered an update on the city’s plans to renovate its infrastructure to withstand future storms.
Dec. 7, 2012

May EBCI Slides For Current Conditions

Electrical manufacturers seem to be picking up some mixed signals on the current and future health of the electrical market.
June 8, 2007
2 min read

Ectrical manufacturers seem to be picking up some mixed signals on the current and future health of the electrical market.

Following on the heels of two months of expansion, North American business conditions softened in May, according to senior industry executives responding to a monthly survey used to develop the Electroindustry Business Confidence Index (EBCI). The EBCI is published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va.

The EBCI Index for current North American conditions slipped to 38.6 points in the latest month from 62 points, its highest level in a year. The 50-point level represents an improvement in business conditions.

NEMA said the present deterioration in conditions may be short-lived. The EBCI for future North American conditions rebounded to 54.5 points from 50 points a month ago, indicating survey panelists expect business conditions six months from now to improve from their current level. Indeed, the North American future conditions index has equaled or exceeded 50 points in each of the last four months. Meanwhile, the EBCI Indexes for global market derived from May’s EBCI Index survey showed mixed results on a month-to-month basis. However, all six markets equaled or bested the critical 50-point threshold indicative of improvements in current or anticipated business conditions: The current conditions index for Latin America slipped 4.5 points to 53.8 points, while the future conditions index held steady at 61.5 points. Current conditions in Europe tumbled 15 points to 57.7 points, while the future conditions reading climbed 4.2 points to 50 points.

Current and future conditions indicators for the Asia/Pacific region both improved, up 3.1 points to 56.7 and 6.7 points to 60 points, respectively.