NEMA's EBCI for Current Conditions in North America Drops in December

The Electroindustry Business Confidence Index (EBCI) for current North American conditions published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va., fell 5.7 points in December to 48.2 points. The index failed to top the ...
Jan. 4, 2010

The Electroindustry Business Confidence Index (EBCI) for current North American conditions published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va., fell 5.7 points in December to 48.2 points. The index failed to top the critical 50-point threshold for the first time since July, indicating modest deterioration in the business environment following a period of steady, if slow, growth over the last several months.

By contrast, EBCI for future North American conditions rebounded in December following declines in each of the two previous months. At 64.3 points, the index posted its tenth straight reading above 50 points, with a 6.3-point gain relative to November suggesting the degree of anticipated improvement in conditions over the next half year increased in the latest month.

The EBCI gauges the business confidence of the electroindustry in Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America, and is based on the results of a monthly survey of senior managers at NEMA member companies. Those companies represent more than 80 percent of the electroindustry. Details

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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.