Nine of eleven economic indicators from the monthly Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) were up in January. That miffed some who thought the industry was starting to soften. In fact, it is not conclusive one way or the other, but January’s numbers showed strength and surprisingly strong upward movements from a vast majority of the indices.

Capital Expenditures for January were up significantly

Durable Goods orders were strong in January

The numbers, which we will dive a bit deeper into below, are provided monthly to members of the IHEA along with a 12-page report that digs into each index and how movement in that index will specifically impact the thermal processing industry. Anyone interested in receiving the report should contact Anne Goyer, Executive Director of IHEA, whose contact information is given at the end of this post.

Which indices were up? As mentioned earlier, nearly all of them.

• New Home Starts took a significant jump.
• Steel Consumption was up significantly.
• Industrial Capacity Utilization was also up from the previous month.
• Metal prices (aluminum, gold, nickel, copper) were also up.
• The PMI was up significantly.
• Capital Expenditures took a huge jump upward.
• Durable Goods saw modest growth.
• Factory orders rebounded from a previous month’s dip.
• Transportation Index experienced a nice rebound after falling for several months.

The only two indices that did not improve were:

• New Automobile and Light Truck Sales were essentially flat falling only slightly.
• Credit Movement was significantly down

According to the IHEA report, this downward movement in the credit index causes one to pause and question whether 2019 will be as robust as 2018.

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