Week 39 in Manufacturing News

Building a Sustainable Future: What Executives Are Saying; Healthcare Costs Are Killing US Manufacturing; German Manufacturers Benefit From Foreign Demand, but Services Lose Steam: PMI; Germany September Flash Manufacturing PMI 56.6 vs 52.5 Expected.

Building a Sustainable Future: What Executives Are Saying

This past year has been ripe with massive disruptions. In fact, 94% of manufacturers surveyed say demand has significantly changed as a result of COVID-19. Manufacturers must work toward the future, with historical levels of supply chain disruption and new workforce agility norms in place.

Oden Technologies surveyed over 75 manufacturing executives in a State of Manufacturing Report that not only highlights some of the key issues facing the industry but how executives are preparing for the uncertainty manufacturers will continue to face in 2021.

While it’s difficult to predict the future, one thing is for certain: preparedness is key.

Source: Quality Magazine

Healthcare Costs Are Killing US Manufacturing

The cause is simple: the U.S. is the only industrial country where the employer directly pays a substantial share of employees’ health care benefits. In other nations, for the most part, citizens themselves and businesses foot the bill, through income taxes. 

The most fundamental rule of competition is to lower manufacturing costs, whether it is for a small business or a whole country. Until the United States goes from an employer-paid system for healthcare benefits to a citizen-paid policy, it will continue to lose its dominance in manufacturing.

Source: Industry Week

German Manufacturers Benefit From Foreign Demand, but Services Lose Steam: PMI

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s private sector continued to recover from the coronavirus shock as foreign demand gave export-oriented manufacturers a boost which helped compensate for weakness in domestically-driven services, a survey showed on Wednesday.

Markit’s flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors that together account for more than two-thirds of the economy, edged down to 53.7 in September from 54.4 in the previous month.

Source: Reuters

Germany September Flash Manufacturing PMI 56.6 vs 52.5 Expected

The report here offers a bit of a mixed bag, as German manufacturers are seen benefiting from some return in foreign demand but the recovery in services is losing steam as virus fears start to return and weigh on domestic consumption.

I guess the bright spot is that the German economy relies more heavily on the manufacturing side but if the virus situation does worsen and prompts tighter restrictions, that in itself will also weigh on production and output in the bigger picture.

Source: Forexlive