As the calendar turned to 2021, it seemed like the year was going to start as strong as 2020 had ended. Sure, you hear about the slumping economy and high unemployment rates, but manufacturing in the US was/is strong. The needs for CNC machining and screw machine parts had been strong since the country "opened" back up in May 2020. This strength continued through the end of 2020 with a strong automotive market and very strong firearms and home improvement industries. Thankfully CNC machines can machine just about anything for these industries and screw machines have niche making basic fittings, bushings and other precision parts for these markets. Therefore, the future remained bright for us.

The strength continued into January 2021 but as we've entered into February the phones have gone a bit quiet. My inbox has slowed to an average of only 1 request for quote per day (down from the usual 2-3 per day average) and there are few calls for new work. Of course, hardly anyone calls these days. This is not a good sign but it's also not a time to panic. Many times we see a simple dip and then back to business as usual a couple weeks later. However, with everything else hurting our country and the world is this s simple dip and then we're back to normal. We hope so. My barometer for a true slump in work is a drop in quote requests for about a month and poor economic indicators. Well, we have poor economic indicators but our stock market is still climbing and our machines have work for 3-4 weeks. So, what can we expect in the next few weeks? The hope is for improvement and as stimulus money is distributed I believe we will see a slight uptick and then a plateau. Not strong but not recessionary. I am certainly not Notradamus but the facts are there so it's my prediction.