Supply Chain Issues Cloud the Economic Tea Leaves

The prognosticators over at Longbow Research have released a short assessment of the current conditions in the process industries. The news is mostly good. The report says . . .

"Demand continues to increase. Our contacts continue to report stronger demand, due to increased spending from both the public and private sectors. Particular industries that are contributing to strong automation demand include food & beverage, packaging, power generation, municipalities and general OEMs. Forest and paper was mixed but showing a slight mprovement, while auto and steel are still limping along."

Other snippets of good news:

"We note that sales did not quite match demand as distributors did not have the product available from some manufacturers. Prices are largely up y/y." 

Supply chain issues seem to be slowing some manufacturers down. 

"Inventories appear largely flat, supply chain problems evident. Many contacts reported that inventories are down because of availability of items. Manufacturers did not anticipate the stronger-than-expected demand and supplier issues contributed to the problems. . .   Our contacts are reporting that most supply issues have been resolved, and are now better
able to handle the demand from their customers.

"Outlook continues to be primarily positive. Most contacts are optimistic about the balance of the year, with contacts serving food and packaging industries particularly bullish. The power generation and utility industry was mentioned as also having increased spending on automation to handle increased summer electricity demand."

 Here's a link to the complete report.