Forecasting the Composites Industry in 2010

Composites industry shipments could be 50 percent lower this year than last year, according to some economic forecasts. “The overall economy is starting to stabilize and recover, but we haven’t seen recovery in the composites business yet,” says Ray MacNeil, a consultant to the composites industry. “We’ve experienced downturns in the past. Our industry kind of rises and falls with the general economy, but demand has dropped off much more severely than past recessions.”

At Composites 2010, MacNeil will give a presentation titled Recovering from the Great Recession: The Outlook for Composites in 2010 and Beyond, during which he’ll explain what made the recession so severe for the composites industry and what to look forward to in the coming year. “The general expectation was that we would start to see improvement in the second half of 2009,” he says. “The overall signs of manufacturing activity in the county have started to pick up. We in composites industry s seem to be lagging a little bit behind. What had been normal inventory was too much and customers in the supply chain have been working down their inventories. That has been the biggest drag in the last several months.”

MacNeil also plans to give attendees tools to help them forecast on their own. “I do usually provide the audience with data and statistics and some of the key indicators that we can watch, such as industrial production, housing starts, automotive builds, and I suggest a few places people can go to find those numbers,” he says. “Good business planning and forecasting are generally a key to success in most business. It’s difficult, but it’s a business discipline that all managers need to practice, to forecast demand coming up three months from now, six months from now, because companies have to make decisions about hiring, purchasing of materials and equipment. If they’re not prepared, they’ll miss opportunities when they appear, or they’ll be caught with too much inventory and people, and that will cost them profits.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 8:15 am and is filed under Keynote Speakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.