ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The Air Movement and Control Association International Inc. (AMCA) released a Quarterly Forecast Newsletter for the third quarter of 2007 authored by consulting economist, Hans Zigmund. According to Zigmund, the air movement and control industry’s principal economic indicators continue to provide mixed results contributing towards a continued feeling of uncertainty about the economy’s performance in the medium term.

Industrial capacity utilization rates continue to remain high. The June 2007 Capacity Utilization Index reported by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, was 81.69. This is only down slightly from 82.25 in June 2006. According to Zigmund, high rates of capacity utilization are generally a good sign for manufacturers of air movement and control products whose primary product lines are industrial in purpose.

“Shipments and bookings have outpaced expectations throughout the first half of 2007,” said Zigmund. He also noted that both the strength of nonresidential construction and the continuing upward pressure on the price of steel and other inputs in the production process continue to cause the value of noninflation adjusted shipments and bookings to climb.

“Since rising prices of production inputs are not likely to subside and all indications are that nonresidential construction should remain strong the remainder of the year, the forecasts for 2007 have been revised upward,” he said.

For more information, visit www.amca.org.

Publication date:09/17/2007