Workholding shipments up 8% in 1st quarter 2010

Workholding shipments jumped 10.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 to US $50 million (CDN $52.7 million), a 10.7 per cent increase from the first quarter of 2009 according to the latest figures on US shipments from the Advanced Workholding Technologies Group of The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AWT-AMT).The AWT group is comprised of AMT members who produce chucks, jaws, collets, vises, fixtures and other workholding equipment.While there are no specific numbers for Canadian workholding activity, Ron Wright, general manager of Schunk Canada, Mississauga, ON, which sells a range of stationary and rotating workholdingsays that he’s seeing an increase in activity in the automotive industry in Ontario and in the oil and gas industry in Western Canada.“If I compare the first half of 2010 with the last half of 2008, our orders are up 30 per cent [in Canada],” says Wright.The big challenge for manufacturers and suppliers selling in Canada is the weak US dollar, which is a competitive disadvantage.“We have a US plant so when there’s a week US dollar the costs of producing our product goes down, but it goes down for customers too so if a customer can purchase a workholding product in Windsor or Detroit, they’re going to purchase it in Detroit because it costs less.”Workholding equipment shipments within the US by the 38 companies participating in the AWT statistical report totalled US $42.6 million (CDN $45 million) while exports amounted to US $7.4 million (CDN $7.8 million).The report shows that US domestic workholding equipment shipments increased 13.6 per cent and US exports decreased 15.5 per cent from fourth quarter 2009. AMT says that its Workholding Market Data Report is the only accurate, timely source of detailed statistics on workholding equipment for marketing and planning purposes.www.amtonline.org

Photo: Schunk's KONTEK KSC clamping module for all types of workpieces.