From The Editor

Donald Trump’s decisive victory in Tuesday’s presidential election spares us the expected agonizing wait for results that characterized the last run for the White House. There will be no such uncertainty this time around.

In the last few months, the industrial economy has, if not bottomed out, then clearly dipped hard from its previous levels. Some of the stories in this edition of eMCN tell just how far.

The Institute for Supply Management’s Production Manager’s Index, one of the most-respected indicators of the strength of the manufacturing sector, fell to its lowest level in 2024. Looking forward, the Precision Metalformers Association’s respondents to its monthly survey are more pessimistic than they’ve been in  while.

The economic numbers are similar. Sales and profits from leading publicly traded service center companies declined in the third quarter compared with both the previous quarter and Q3 of 2023.

Conversations with supply chain participants since the second half started indicated the uncertainty surrounding the presidential election was serving as a drag on business activity. The hope here is they were right, and having a definitive result will re-engage the industrial sector.