By Keith Gushard
MEADVILLE TRIBUNE
MEADVILLE —
Local manufacturers are seeing a pickup in business, but they’re not sure how long it will be sustained as manufacturing nationally shows signs of a possible backslide.
“We’re growing. We’re hiring,” said Rob Smith, president of Acutec Precision Machining Inc., an aerospace manufacturer with about 245 employees total in plants in Saegertown and Meadville, plus another 30 workers in South Carolina.
C & J Industries of Meadville, a tooling and parts manufacturer, also has seen growth in its business and has increased employment.
“It started about two months ago,” said Dennis Frampton, C & J’s president. The company does work for the consumer electronics, home consumer products, computer and health industries.
It has about 280 employees now compared to 240 three months ago, he said. C & J had laid off between 10 and 15 employees. Those employees have been recalled and new hires made, he said.
Acutec had laid off about 20 employees and was down to around 205 employees here in November 2009.
Acutec saw growth in December 2009 as commercial passenger aviation and air freight both increased as spare parts are need for planes, according to Smith. It began employee callbacks and some new hires around the first of the year.
In addition, programs such as Boeing’s 787 airliner and a multinational strike fighter aircraft are fueling growth at Acutec.
“I need machinists mainly,” he said. “I’d hire 10 to 20 if I can find the right ones.”
Smith declined to give numbers, but says his company’s sales may grow 10 to 20 percent this year.
Frampton expects his firm to increase its sales by 10 to 12 percent this year.
Pat Donahue, a co-owner of Fibro Tool of Meadville, a tooling and machining shop with only six employees, also is seeing a rebound. It’s a supplier to the consumer electronics and steel industries.
“We’re about double where we were last year at this time,” Donahue said of business. Though the business hasn’t added employees, it’s been able to increase employment hours, he said.
“We’re starting to pick back up as the consumer electronics industry is making things now for Christmas holiday season,” he said. “Business may grow 25 percent between now and the end of year.”
Donahue said if that happens the business would be close to the sales level it had in 2007, its best year.
However, there are some signs nationally that the economy is slowing.
The Institute for Supply Management said its national manufacturing index slipped in July to 55.5 from 56.2 in June. But July was the 12th straight month of a reading of 50, which indicates economic expansion.
Unemployment nationally remains at 9.5 percent and around 10 percent in the region.
Ralph Pontillo, president of the Manufacturer and Business Association, an Erie-based 4,700-member business trade group, said the numbers translate into uncertainty.
“We’re experiencing some growth, but there’s still high unemployment,” he said. “Business and consumer spending is not there yet. It’s difficult to get a grip on which way the economy is going.”
Smith’s concerned about a slowdown, but he doesn’t see one yet as Acutec has a number of firm business orders in place for the foreseeable future.
“I’m confident for the next year, but by the same standpoint I’m not buying a new building,” he said.
Though things have improved at C & J, Frampton said he’s only cautiously optimistic.
“People are not buying capital goods,” Frampton said of big ticket items like appliances, vehicles and other costly goods.
Donahue said Fibro’s steel industry business still remains off. The company supplies parts to the steel industry to make capital goods like appliances and cars.
“Appliances are down as new home sales still are down,” Donahue said.
The biggest potential hitch to a sustained recovery could be the government, according to the manufacturers.
Changes in health care rules and regulations and tax laws, could upend the recovery, Smith said.
“If I don’t have the money to reinvest in the business because it’s going to the government instead, it may slow us down,” Smith said.
Frampton agrees.
“Business are not spending money unless they need to,” Frampton said. “It’s worries about taxes, government spending, health care changes, energy costs, the list just goes on and on.”
Pontillo said deficit spending by the federal and state governments to finance programs isn’t inspiring businesses to invest themselves.
“The problem is it’s being done on borrowed money,” Pontillo said of government spending. “We’re borrowing our future to pay for the present. When that debt hits — because it will have to be repaid — we’ll be worse off than before.”
Did you know
The number of manufacturing jobs in Crawford County was 6,500 for June. The number of manufacturing jobs in the county has been in the 6,500 to 6,600 range each month for the past 12 months, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
Crawford County is more heavily dependent on manufacturing than other areas of the country. About 20 percent of the jobs in the county are related to manufacturing, compared to about 12 percent for the state and 11 percent nationally.
Most of the local manufacturing jobs are tied to the tooling and machining industry. While they don’t make the end-products themselves, the firms supply tools, equipment and parts to major manufacturers.
Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.
