Motion control industry continues to forecast growth

The PTDA Business Index for the first quarter of 2013 produced a reading of 61.1, which represents a substantial increase over last quarter’s reading of 50.7, the 12th consecutive expansion, according to the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA).

The numbers indicate that the power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) industry expanded for the 12th consecutive quarter at a slightly faster pace compared with the fourth quarter of 2012. However, the first quarter of 2013 index is significantly lower when compared against the same quarter in previous years (with the 1Q2011 index at 85.5 and the 1Q12 index at 75.4).
The entire 1Q13 PTDA Business Index report is available through PTDA’s website at www.ptda.org/Index. It includes U.S. and Canadian breakout data in addition to historical data. Conducted jointly by PTDA and Cleveland Research Company, the PTDA Business Index was modeled after the widely respected Purchasing Managers Index and tracks change in business activity, new orders, employment, supplier deliveries, inventories, prices and backlog in the PT/MC industry to arrive at an overall index.