NEMA Economist: Construction Overtakes Industrial as Key Electrical Industry Driver

When U.S. electrical manufacturers and component suppliers gather at this year’s CWIEME Chicago exhibition, Oct. 6-7, they’ll get a somewhat surprising economic insight from Timothy Gill, deputy chief economist, National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).

Based on the association’s latest economic research, the key drivers in the electrical market have shifted. “For example, the industrial sector, which purchases electrical equipment both as an input to other manufactured goods, as well as for the automation of manufacturing processes, bounced back relatively well in the early days of recovery. This was good news for suppliers of equipment, such as motors, industrial controls and certain types of transformers – but more recently the pace of growth has slowed considerably.”

But according to NEMA’s forecasts, the construction sector appears to be taking over from the industrial manufacturing sector as the strongest market for electrical equipment.

“There have been fits and starts in the housing recovery, but activity has been trending slowly upwards for some time now,” he says, adding that non-residential construction is in the midst of a “boomlet.”