U.S. Factory Orders Increased in November
Reuters reported this week that new orders for domestically manufactured goods rose 1.6 percent in November, with October numbers being revised to reflect growth of 1.2 percent instead of the originally reported 1 percent growth figure.
According to the report, this figure was slightly higher than the 1.5 percent growth analysts had predicted. When compared to November 2020, orders were up 12.9 percent, according to the Reuters report.
Orders for electronic equipment and computers were specifically cited as strong, although orders for machinery, appliances and components deceased.
Read More: reuters.com
ISM Reports 19 Consecutive Months of Growth
The Institute for Supply Management’s newest report shows the overall economy growing for a nineteenth consecutive month, with growth in production, employment and new orders. Timothy R. Fiore, chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, noted “the U.S. manufacturing sector remains in a demand-driven, supply chain-constrained environment, with indications of improvements in labor resources and supplier delivery performance.”
Fiore went on to say that despite the ongoing impacts of the coronavirus around the world – specifically, shortages of labor and parts along with supply chain constraints – the sentiment of manufacturers surveyed remains “strongly optimistic, with six positive growth comments for every cautious comment, down slightly from November.”
Read More: ismworld.org
Asia-Pacific IoT Spending to Reach $437 Billion by 2025: IDC
The International Data Corporation predicts that spending on Internet of Things (IoT) devices and systems will have grown by 9.6 percent when final year-end 2021 figures are tallied, according to the latest release of the agency’s semi-annual IoT Spending Guide.
The new report also predicts that IoT spending in the region will reach USD$437 billion within three years, with a CAGR of 12.1 percent – a rapid expansion that IDC says will be caused by “increased adoption of location tracking, facial recognition, remote working, cold chain logistics and tracking of vaccines, video-centric application and deployment of 5G in the region.”
Read More: idc.com
Electronic Component Sales “Exceed Expectations” in December
With strong activity in passives, electromechanical components and connectors, the results of the most recent sales survey from the Electronic Components Industry Association shows electronic component sales sentiment outpacing analysts’ predictions in December 2021, according to a report by EPSNews.
ECIA Chief Analyst Dale Ford was quoted as saying: “The overall component sales sentiment outlook for December published in the November report was 95.2, an indication of expectation of a month-to-month sales decline. The actual sentiment measured for December in the latest survey is 114.4, a difference of 19.2 points and an indication of sales growth.”
As January begins, all six product index measures show signs of “robust month-to-month sales growth between 119.6 for passive components up to 135.5 for semiconductors.”
Read More: epsnews.com
Expect More M&A Activity in Medical Technology in 2022
News outlet MedTechDive, in recapping the year just ended, notes that after a cautious year in 2022, medical technology firms took part in an estimated 288 merger and acquisition deals in 2021. That trend is predicted to continue in the new year, with companies continuing to consolidate in this sector:
Across all of healthcare, companies are taking advantage of abundant capital, both in the private markets and via the rise of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Medtech players in particular are motivated to gain scale as a defense against reimbursement pressures and to accelerate revenue generation by investing in high-growth areas, according to PwC. Becton Dickinson, for example, told analysts in November it aims to spend $2 billion annually on tuck-in acquisitions that will help it expand in hot areas such as connected care devices.
Read More: medtechdive.com
More COVID-19 Impacts on Air Freight
Thursday, The Loadstar reported a two-week total ban on flights from eight nations, including the United States, was being put into effect – a further blow to air freight after Hong Kong imposed coronavirus-related flight bans on 24 routes during the last six weeks.
Flights to Hong Kong from Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, the Philippines, Pakistan and India are also banned for the two-week period due to the impact of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
The bans are having a major impact on Cathay Pacific Cargo (CX), and are making it more difficult for forwarders to move cargo out of Hong Kong, according to The Loadstar’s Ian Putzger: “Forwarders have to spend significantly more time finding solutions for individual shipments, as schedule reliability has been undermined … In some cases flight capacity is available, but there is no trucking capacity to get freight to the airport in question.”
Read More: theloadstar.com
Follow TTI, Inc. on LinkedIn for more news and market insights.