1980 FIN – After Strong Opening Quarter, Fastener Profits Decline for Year
April 25, 1980 FIN – Fastener manufacturers after a good first quarter in 1979 suffered declines in operating profits and shipments in the succeeding quarters of last year.
That’s the conclusion of the second annual survey of the industry made by the International Trade Commission.
The survey, has been published under the title of “Bolts, Nuts and Large Screws of Iron or Steel: U.S. Producers’ Profits, Unfilled Orders, Inventories, Capital Expenditures and capacity, U.S. Importers’ Unfilled Orders, Inventories, and Prices, Annual Survey 1979”.
Here are some of the highlights of the Survey:
• Profits plummeted from $25 million in the first quarter to $3.3 million in the last quarter.
• The ratio of net operating profit had a similar drop, going from 11.7 percent in the first quarter to 3.9 percent in the fourth quarter.
• Fastener producers’ unfilled orders of bolts, nuts and large screws started the year with an order total of 265 million pounds. The last quarter’s total of 218 million pounds was slightly less than the 223 million pounds of the last quarter of 1978.
Unfilled orders reported by fastener importing companies decreased during each of the quarters of 1979. the order total in the last quarter was 91 million pounds, down about 10 percent from 101 million pounds in the last quarter of 1978.
• Total U.S. fastener industry capacity for bolts, large screws and nuts was about 1.7 billion pounds in 1979, down 22.4 percent from 2.19 billion pounds in 1979.
• Capital spending by fastener makers over the same four years (1976-1979) increased by 52 percent.
• Inventories held by fastener makers in the last quarter of 1979 totaled 176 million pounds, up 20 percent from the 148 million pounds of the last quarter of 1978. Inventories of fastener importers declined about 10 percent, sliding from 315 million pounds in the last quarter of 1978 to 281 million pounds in the fourth quarter of 1979.
©1980/2015 Fastener Industry News.
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