Motor Shipments on the Upswing

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) said demand for motors grew for a fourth straight quarter during the April to June 2011 period, largely on the strength of growth in fractional horsepower motors. NEMA's Motors Shipments Index increased 16.4 percent from the previous quarter. This gain followed a 13.1 percent gain posted in the first quarter of the year.

Since bottoming out in the second quarter of 2009, during the depths of the Great Recession, the index has climbed a cumulative 55 percent and now exceeds its pre-recession high.

Growth in the fractional horsepower segment of the motors market continued to far outpace that of the integral horsepower segment in the first half of 2011, as has been the case over the last two years. The inflation adjusted dollar value of fractional horsepower motors shipments more than doubled between the second quarter of 2009 and the second quarter of 2011 while the value of integral horsepower motors shipments increased by only 10 percent over the same period.