Orders for new conveyors fell an astounding 19.5% in April compared to the same period last year, according to statistics released this month by the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association.
But the group’s executive director, Bob Reinfried, said it wasn’t time to hit the panic button quite yet because the figures were simply “a blip”: and that the first four months of 2014 were strong.
“We all knew that pace couldn’t continue,” Reinfried told Modern Materials Handling. “But orders still outpaced shipments for the first four months. We expected this and expect orders to come increase a bit next month.”
Yet April 2014 orders compared to March 2014 booked orders were down even further, 21.3%. And April booked orders for unit handling equipment were down 31.4% when compared to March. April booked orders were down only 0.3% for bulk handling equipment.
On a brighter note, CEMA’s April 2014 billed sales, or shipments, rose 4.8% when compared to April 2013. And billed sales for the month were up 7.8% when compared to March.
Bulk handling equipment billed sales for April were down 3.2% and unit handling equipment billed sales for the month were up 15.8% compared to March.