November orders were 2.8% more than one year ago, making it the first month of growth since February 2020 and just the second since January 2019.
Manufacturers closed the year on a high note as business activity across many business elements improved during December. Trends seen during the second-half of 2020 suggest that 2021 will have challenges of its own that manufacturers would be wise to proactively tackle early in the new year.
In October, real cutting tool orders were $167.9 million, which was the highest order total since March.
While disposable income is growing at its fastest annual rate in 35 years, consumer spending is contracting at its fastest annual rate since the data series started in 1959.
The month-over-month rate of growth for durable goods spending was 12.1%, which was the sixth straight month with growth faster than 11%.
For the fourth time in sixth months, housing permits grew faster than 11.5%.
The month-over-month rate of contraction was close to 6.0% each of the last five months.
Capacity utilization has improved every month since April. The annual rate of change in capacity utilization should bottom out any month now.
Iron ore and steel prices increased sharply during the second half of 2020 as strong demand caught suppliers who shuttered plants earlier in the year off-guard. The steel industry had been facing eroding spot prices for more than a year before COVID was classified as a pandemic in March. After watching spot prices fall throughout 2019 and then fearing additional strain on the industry due to the spread of COVID across the world—and especially in the US—it is all too reasonable to understand why the industry shuttered large amounts of production early on in 2020.
Machine tool orders increased for the second month in a row. The trend in the GBI indicates growth in machine tool orders should continue.
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