Conditions in The Industry Were Starting to Improve by 2010

Current Conditions By 2010, conditions in the industry were starting to improve. According to the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association, shipments of conveyors in North America in 2010 were valued at $6.6 billion, up almost 10 percent as compared to 2009. More recent figures showed that overall industry orders for the first six months of 2011 increased more than 38 percent compared to the same period in 2010. The conveyor and conveying equipment manufacturing industry was primarily composed of small establishments; about 63 percent employed fewer than 25 workers, according to Dun and Bradstreet, in 2010. According to industry statistics, there were an estimated 1,012 establishments engaged in manufacturing conveyors and conveying equipment for installation in factories, warehouses, mines, and other industrial and commercial establishments in 2010. Sales were valued at $3.1 billion and industry-wide employment was 30,206 workers. States with the highest concentration of workers in the industry were Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Industry Leaders Continental Conveyor & Equipment Co., located in Winfield, Alabama, was one of the leading domestically owned manufacturers. Continental was owned by Nesco Inc., a private holding company that also owned Goodman Conveyor Co., a manufacturer of conveyors for bulk material handling. Continental Conveyor primarily manufactured conveyors for mining and construction tasks, as well as conveyors that are able to convey materials over land for hundreds of feet. In 2005, the company had $125 million in sales and employed 700 workers. Continental Global was acquired by Joy Global, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for an estimated $270 million in early 2008. Through its subsidiaries, Continental Conveyors & Equipment Co. and Goodman Conveyor Company Inc., Continental Group designed and manufactured conveyor systems and components for the mining industry. Continental Global reported revenues of approximately $340 million in 2007. Joy Global posted $3.5 billion in 2010 revenues. Other industry leaders were foreign owned and included the British company FKI Logistex North America, which manufactured package conveyors used by FedEx and UPS, and Siemens Industry Automation, formerly Siemens Energy & Automation, a subsidiary of the German company Siemens AG. Workforce Employment levels in the material handling equipment manufacturing industry dropped during the 1980s and 1990s as automation increased. In 1982, employment was 36,400 nationwide, falling to 30,600 by 1993. This figure rose to 33,100 in 1994 and to 40,319 in 2000, then dropped to 34,159 in 2002. Production workers numbered 18,362 and earned an average hourly wage of $17.36 in 2002, compared to an hourly wage of $14.17 in 1997. The material handling equipment industry as a whole also saw a drop in its workforce. In 2002, there were 82,148 total employees in the industry, with 49,682 of these production workers, but the total number of employees dropped to 73,867 in 2004, with 45,606 of these production workers, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. By 2009, the industry employed 73,853 people, about 62 percent of whom were production workers earning an average wage of $19.73 an hour. The direct production workers in the conveyor and conveyor equipment industry are broadly classified by the U.S. Department of Labor as working within the "general purpose machinery manufacturing" segment of the machinery manufacturing industry. Skilled workers in this industry earn relatively higher wages and need skills that are based on advanced training and education acquired through technical schools, apprenticeship programs, and on-the-job training. Employment in the general purpose machinery manufacturing sector was expected to decline a total of 7.6 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Career Guide to Industries. America and the World The markets that have the highest demand for material handling equipment, of which conveyor systems and equipment is the second largest segment, have been those industrialized countries with large manufacturing bases, such as in Europe, North America, Japan, Korea, and China. While some of these countries have large markets for material handling equipment, they are also major producers of this equipment and host companies that compete in the U.S. domestic market. According to the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association Journal, there are about 1,000 industry competitors worldwide. The United States has been importing more material handling equipment than it has been exporting since at least the late 1990s. Research and Technology The food and beverage industries employ conveying systems primarily for their labor savings, but speed and performance are also important. In the food industry, many products such as baked goods, breakfast cereals, and snack chips need careful handling during the production and packaging processes. To meet this need, "horizontal motion conveyors" have been developed and were increasingly being used during the 2000s. With these conveyors, products gently slide along with no vertical motion and so do not bounce, which causes product damage. Speed, reliability, and performance are emphasized as top priorities of beverage production lines. Production machines are continually being improved to perform at faster rates. However, the production rate of a machine is meaningless unless the conveyor system can deliver the containers on time. Because bottling companies are demanding higher production rates from machines, in some cases as much as 1,600 units per minute or more, material handling equipment manufacturers have had to redesign their products to meet the higher speeds. Computerized process flows have made the industry more sophisticated, allowing for variable speed control through "intelligent" software that accepts feedback from key points in the system. Technological developments of particular significance in the 2000s included faster and quieter belt conveyors powered by stronger motors. Examples include the drum motors introduced in 2005 by BDL America Ltd., which could run at belt speeds of 1,369 feet per minute. In 2006, F.A. Miller & Son, an Australian company, introduced its "air-supported belt conveyor technology," a technological concept similar to hovercraft technology. In this conveyor technology, air is forced up from below the belt so that the belt glides along on a cushion of air. This technology reduces the amount of moving parts needed, is more energy efficient, and decreases conveyor friction, which reduces parts maintenance, according to the company. Air-supported belt conveyors are able to handle a variety of materials, from crushed rocks and minerals to foodstuffs. Another development in conveyor technology has been the introduction of modular conveyor systems. Modular conveyor systems, as opposed to conventional "fixed length systems," are composed of sections or modules that can be reconfigured much more easily and cost effectively than fixed length conveyors. Modular systems are also easier to maintain and require fewer replacement parts. The flexibility that modular systems provide boosts productivity, and is especially important in meeting increasingly intricate production processes and high quality control standards. Source: business.highbeam.com