PTDA Business Index Reveals A Positive Outlook For 2011

According to the third quarter results of the Quarterly Business Index released by the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA), PTDA members are projecting 10 percent growth on top of the 14 percent average growth expectation for 2010. In the third quarter, respondents experienced expansion, albeit at a slightly reduced rate than the second quarter. The overall reading for the third quarter was 74.6, compared to 77.0 in the second quarter. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. A comparative review of distributor and manufacturer results show that manufacturing expanded at a faster pace than distribution, with a reading of 76.6 for manufacturers vs. 71.2 for distributors.

The PTDA Business Index is available at no charge through the PTDA website at www.ptda.org/Index. The full report includes U.S. and Canadian breakout data. Conducted jointly by PTDA and Cleveland Research Company, the PTDA Quarterly Business Index was modeled after the widely respected Purchasing Managers Index and tracks change in business activity, new orders, employment, supplier deliveries, inventories, prices and backlog in the PT/MC market to arrive at an overall index.