While talks of a slowdown persist, industrial distributors outperformed nearly all other wholesale sectors in 1Q’s first two months.
The increase was above investor expectations of a 0.2% gain, according to a survey by The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. factory construction spending hit a record level in 2022, and it hasn’t slowed down in 2023. Mike Hockett breaks down the numbers and what this means for distribution.
Backlog is down in every region except for the South, which continues to see elevated levels of current and future construction activity.
Year-to-date orders for 2023 totaled $819.6 million, 10.7% below the first two months of 2022, according to a new report.
Walmart said it expects about 65% of its stores to be serviced by automation by the end of its fiscal year 2026
Distributors have consistently voiced market optimism in recent months, but one of the leading economic indicators is cause for concern.
Last year brought the total number of job announcements since 2010 to nearly 1.6 million, according to the Reshoring Initiative.
Cutting tool consumption totaled $196.2 million, according to the USCTI and the Association For Manufacturing Technology.
There was an unexpected drop in producer prices in February, and January’s price rise was not as large as initially anticipated.
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories for January 2023 were down 0.1% from December 2022 — but up 11.1% from January 2022.
Over the past 12 months, the all-items index has increased 6% before seasonal adjustment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
