ISM: U.S. Manufacturing Activity Drops in February

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Manufacturing activity in the U.S. dipped further in February as new orders contracted following an expansion in January, according to a survey report by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Still, Industrial Info is tracking $50 billion worth of U.S. Industrial Manufacturing Industry projects that are planned to kick off in the second quarter.

The ISM's February Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI), which tracks 18 industry sectors in the U.S., registered 47.8%--down from 49.1% in January. That shows contraction for the 16th straight month, as any reading under 50% indicates contraction in the manufacturing economy. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index rising to 49.5.

However, a reading above 42.5%, "over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy," according to the ISM.

The New Orders Index moved back into contraction territory at 49.2%, 3.3 percentage points lower than the 52.5% reading in January. "The U.S. manufacturing sector continued to contract (and at a faster rate compared to January), with demand slowing, output easing and inputs remaining accommodative," said Timothy Fiore, chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. In addition, factory employment dropped to a seven-month low: "Head-count reductions continued in February, with notable layoff activity noted," Fiore added.

He did provide some positive news as well, saying "demand is at the early stages of recovery, and production execution is relatively stable compared to January, as panelists' companies begin to prepare for expansion. Suppliers continue to have capacity but are showing signs of struggling, due in part to their raw material supply chains."

Despite any negative sentiment, Industrial Info is tracking $50 billion worth of U.S. Industrial Manufacturing Industry projects that are planned to kick off in the second quarter. The following sectors account for about $33 billion of the spend: data centers ($18 billion); heavy manufacturing ($7.8 billion); and automotive ($7.1 billion).

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can click here for a full list of projects.

The second-quarter data center kickoffs include two expansion projects from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) (Redmond, Washington). A $500 million Phase 1 expansion at its data center campus in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin entails constructing a 370,000-square-foot building to increase capacity for Microsoft's Azure and GCC cloud platforms; the project is expected to wrap up by the end of the year. Meanwhile, a $500 million expansion of its data center campus in San Jose, California entails constructing a 244,676-square-foot data center building and 13,826 square feet of administrative and support buildings and installing 140 natural gas standby generators and one diesel standby generator, among other supporting equipment and systems. Completion is expected by the end of 2025. Subscribers can read detailed information on the San Jose and Mount Pleasant projects.

Activity in the heavy manufacturing sector is buoyed by a major project from LG Energy Solution (LGES) (Seoul, South Korea), a subsidiary of LG Corporation: its $5.5 billion grassroot battery-manufacturing campus in Queen Creek, Arizona, which will consist of two facilities: one to produce 27 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of cylindrical batteries per year for electric vehicles (EV) and another for 16 gigawatt-hours per year of lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries for energy storage. The facilities are expected to begin production in 2025 and 2026, respectively. Click here to read the project report.

The automotive sector features another major EV-related project: SK On Company Limited (Seoul, South Korea) is adding a third and final plant at its lithium-ion battery manufacturing complex in Commerce, Georgia. The $940 million project entails constructing a 430,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to produce 11.7 GWh of batteries per year, which will bring the total production capacity to more than 30 GWh per year. The project is expected to kick off in April and take about a year to complete. SK on is a subsidiary of LG Corporation. Click here for more information.

Subscribers to the GMI Database can click here for a look at all of the projects discussed in this article and here for the plant profiles.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).