Manufacturing growth to continue throughout 2018

Economic growth is expected to continue in the U.S. throughout 2018, said the nation’s purchasing and supply executives in the Spring 2018 Semiannual Economic Forecast from the Institute for Supply Management®. Expectations for the remainder of 2018 continue to be positive in both the manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors.

Sixty-two percent of respondents from a panel of manufacturing supply management executives predict their revenues, on average will be 11.6 percent greater in 2018 compared to 2017, 5 percent expect a 11.9 percent decline, and 33 percent foresee no change in revenue. This yields an overall average forecast of 6.6 percent revenue growth among manufacturers for 2018, which is 1.5 percentage points above the December 2017 forecast of 5.1 percent revenue growth for 2018 and 2.5 percentage points above the actual revenue growth reported for all of 2017.

The 15 industries reporting expectations of growth in revenue for 2018 — listed in order — are Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Products; Transportation Equipment; Plastics & Rubber Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Computer & Electronic Products; Wood Products; Primary Metals; Machinery; Chemical Products; Paper Products; Furniture & Related Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; and Nonmetallic Mineral Products.

The full report can be found here.