INDUSTRY NEWS

UK Manufacturing Leads the Pack

India’s PMI sees a steep drop as COVID-19 strikes the country hard

For the most part, manufacturing showed strength in May as the Eurozone and four additional countries were comfortably above the 60 percent PMI level. UK manufacturers set the pace as the country surged with a 4.7 percent PMI increase to reach a new high of 65.6 percent. On the other hand, India struggled with a COVID-19 resurgence and reversed the UK number and fell by 4.7 percent to a 50.8 percent PMI reading.

Zahn’s New One-stroke Brush Series

One-stroke technique is a special painting technique using two or more different colors at the same time. This technique has been popular for several years for nail design, but it can be easily transferred to artist and hobby painting.

Post Pandemic: People or Robots?

By Lisa Anderson

According to Statista Research Department, the global market for robots is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 26 percent to reach close to $210 billion by 2025. To back that up, Automation World reports almost 45 percent of respondents to their adoption survey currently use robots in their assembly and manufacturing operations and almost 25 percent expect to add robots in the next year.

May 2021 Pulse: Industrial Brush Sector

In our May/June issue of Brushware we took the opportunity to catch up with three key players in the industrial brush industry to get their insights on the sector.

Michelle Swiniarski: Schaefer Brush / Gornell Brush

What has been your best-performing product over the past 12 months?

Product category sales heightened as they related to the cleaning industry. Brushes related to the MRO industrial sector skyrocketed with the increased cleaning practices required during the height of the pandemic. What made this a challenge during the pandemic was securing raw materials, while various businesses were navigating the challenges of being able to operate and ship, while everyone operated under different business operating rules during this past year.

Global PMI: Strong Numbers Continue

Manufacturing PMI numbers across the world pushed up in April with only the US and Germany showing a decline from March. Of course, Germany and the US were still above the 60 percent mark and notably both Italy and the UK also pushed into the 60th percentile as well. Despite issues from COVID-19, Indian manufacturing grew by one-tenth, while China showed a strong bump of 1.3 percent to reach 51.9 for April. All countries reported strong business optimism despite supply-chain issues and COVID-19 concerns in India.

US Manufacturing Stays Strong in April

The latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® issued by Timothy R. Fiore, Chair of the ISM® Manufacturing Business Survey Committee reported a 60.7 percent PMI for April. That represented a decrease of four percentage points from the March reading of 64.7 percent.