Tube and pipe to make a bigger footprint at FABTECH®

If you’ve looked closely at industry data lately, you’ve probably noticed that many industrial sectors have done well over the last several months. Automobile production? Setting new records. Residential construction? It increased 5.5 percent in 2016. Nonresidential construction peaked some time ago, but some subsectors did really well last year: Commercial construction increased 11 percent, lodging increased 22 percent, and office construction went up a whopping 29 percent. Domestic oil isn’t at a peak, but it’s still quite healthy—more than 8 million barrels per day—mainly because the crude oil price stabilized around $50 per barrel. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that consumer spending on durable goods rose during the last three financial quarters of 2016.

If you thought these trends looked good in 2016, most have been even better since the election. The staff members at The Tube & Pipe Journal^® and its sister publications have heard good news for months now—it seems that every company in the metal fabrication industry is running at full throttle since the election brought that dreadful, divisive campaign to an end.Big-picture indicators show similar trends that started before the election. The PMI^®, tallied and reported by the Institute for Supply Management, has been on an upward trend for six months and hit 57.7 in February (the latest data available at press time). One of the forward-looking components of the PMI, the New Orders Index, was at 65.1 in February. This bodes well for 2017 and beyond, as does recent action taken by the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee. Citing increasing signs of a strengthening economy, it voted on March 15 to raise the target range for the federal funds rate for the second time in two months.

Meanwhile, during the last several years, the annual FABTECH^® expo likewise has been doing well. The exposition’s founders, the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Intl.^® (FMA) and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) were joined by the American Welding Society (AWS), the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA), and the Chemical Coaters Association International (CCAI), adding more emphasis in welding, stamping, and finishing, respectively. For any metal fabricator, FABTECH continues to be the best way to see the latest technologies for forming, fabricating, joining, and coating technology. The organizers aren’t finished. An additional trade expos will appear alongside FABTECH this year: IAMD USA – Integrated Automation, Motion & Drives. This is a combination of two formerly separate trade fairs, Industrial Automation North America and Motion, Drive & Automation North America. The first concerns process automation; the second focuses on power transmission, motion control, and fluid technology. This is a powerful combination alongside FABTECH.

It doesn’t end there. The organizers realized that tube and pipe suppliers and their customers didn’t have a place to meet, and this year they created one. They joined forces with Messe Düsseldorf, the company that organizes Tube^®, the biennial tube and pipe expo in Germany, to create a pavilion dedicated to tube and pipe producers and suppliers. The booths in this section will go to the first 100 companies that sign up, so if you’re interested, don’t delay. The organizers expect 40,000 people to attend, so it’s an ideal opportunity to meet new customers, say hello to existing customers, and maybe venture over to the other pavilions if you’re interested in replacing or upgrading some of your equipment.

See you in Chicago!