CLEVELAND—America’s metalforming industry expects its most dramatic economic upturn in the past 15 months, according to the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report. Conducted monthly, the report is an economic indicator for the manufacturing world, sampling 149 manufacturing companies.
Forty-two percent of the August survey’s respondents say they thought economic activity would increase over the next three months compared to August, up from 28% in the previous survey. This is the highest percentage since May 2002. Only 9% predict that activity will decrease, while 49% expect conditions to remain the same.