Steel consumption, somewhat counter-intuitively, took a significant jump in April despite rising prices.
The rising price of steel along with three other negative moving indices were the only four downward-moving indices in May according to the authoritative monthly report issued by North America’s leading thermal processing equipment manufacturing association, the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (www.ihea.org).
Another negative indicator was the metal price index which reports on aluminum (up slightly), copper (steady), nickel (up slightly), and gold (steady). Given the anticipated and now-imposed steel and aluminum tariffs, it is uncertain what will happen to aluminum and steel prices although the report suggests that steel consumption was up not so much due to demand, but in anticipation of future shortages resulting from tariffs.
The PMI saw its fourth straight monthly decline.
Positive indices included industrial capacity utilization, new home starts, capital expenditures, and durable goods shipments.
Each month, the report details the movements and rationale behind 11-14 metal industry-specific indices. The full report is available to IHEA member companies.
To inquire about the full report, please contact Anne Goyer, Executive Director of IHEA by clicking here.
A must-attend event for thermprocess and industrial finishing & coatings executives, ITPS/IFCS will provide a unique platform for industry intelligence and collaboration. This two-day Summit will feature two joint general sessions with a total of ten presentations addressing topics of crucial importance to all manufacturing leadership, including:
Factories of the Future: What Does the Future Workforce Look Like? Dr. Irene Petrick, Market Innovation Director, Industrial Solutions Div./Internet of Things Group, Intel Corporation
Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things, the Fourth Manufacturing Revolution, Artificial Intelligence – these terms have quickly become standard manufacturing terminology, but exactly how do they impact your business and your workforce? Dr. Petrick will address what manufacturers can expect on the factory floor as well as changes to their workforce as these once-ideological concepts become today’s reality.
Trends in Additive Manufacturing Todd Grimm, Founder and President, T.A. Grimm & Associates, Inc.
The hottest and likely fastest growing industrial technology over the past several years, Additive Manufacturing (AM) pops up in virtually every conversation about advanced manufacturing. AM expert Todd Grimm will offer insights on trends, metal and non-metal applications, and their impact on manufacturing that will assist thermprocessing and finishing business leaders in devising a strategy to leverage, or counter, AM’s impact.
Why I'm Attending: “This event is uniquely valuable in the thermal processing and finishing industries to C-level or equivalent people. I’ve found the 2-3 days to be an excellent opportunity to keep up with the latest “mega-trends” and as a refreshing time for thinking outside the box and making exceptionally valuable industry contacts.”
Doug Glenn, Publisher and Editor Heat Treat Today
[button link="www.itps-ifcs.com" size="default" icon="Select a Icon" side="right" target="blank" color="b70900" textcolor="ffffff"]Register Now[/button] Save 25% with discount code ED25C.
Registration discounts are available for IHEA, CCAI, MTI, CECOF, JIFMA, VDMA, Electrocoat Association and WiM members.
To register, or for complete Summit information, including hotel reservations and registration, visitwww.itps-ifcs.com.
Following several months of nothing but relatively good news, this month’s IHEA Executive Economic Summary Report shows some numbers dipping. As Chris Kuehl, the economist behind the report, states in his monthly in-depth analysis, “This month there is good news in bad data and some bad news in the good data. It is not always about whether an index is climbing this month or not. Sometimes it is the overall trend line and how it compares to what it might have been some months ago.”
Auto and light truck sales continue to be strong.
Every month, Dr. Kuehl, through IHEA, provides not only raw data that is of specific interest to the heat treating industry, but he also provides insightful analysis of what the numbers mean and why readers should care.
Dr. Chris Kuehl, economic analyst for IHEA, prepares the monthly IHEA Economic Trends Index.
The April report showed an increase in roughly half of the index numbers, including a surprisingly strong automobile and light truck sales index which, according to Kuehl, “continues to shock analysts as there is an assumption that the market is already saturated. It seems not to be the case as the consumer still has a desire for new wheels and if the current hike in gas prices accelerates there may soon be a new desire for those fuel sippers.”
Steel consumption continues to be weak.
Along with auto and truck sales, some of the other indices that also continued to climb were industrial capacity utilization, capital expenditures, and durable goods shipments.
Falling indices included the purchasing managers index, new home starts, and steel consumption.
Anne Goyer, Executive Director of IHEA
For a look at the complete report, contact Anne Goyer, Executive Director of the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA).
This is the third and final special report from the triennial mega-meeting hosted by the Metal Treating Institute (MTI) and the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) and the pressing question that needs to be answered is: “Where do manufacturers with in-house heat treat departments find good training and troubleshooting resources?”
This three-day event with over 91 heat treat industry supplier companies represented and approximately 200 attendees addresses the “brain drain” topic we reported on in Monday’s special report (click here to read Monday’s post).
Pete Hushek, 2018 President of MTI, talks about heat treat training for manufacturers with in-house heat treat operations
Both organizations are offering training courses, both live and web-based, for manufacturers with in-house heat treat. Some of the specific courses are mentioned below. In addition to offering training, both organizations also offer memberships to these same companies.
For membership information, click on the appropriate links below:
For the Industrial Heating Equipment Association, click here.
For training, consider the following:
IHEA Training Opportunities
If you’re looking for comprehensive, face-to-face combustion training, consider attending IHEA’s Combustion Seminar. The next combustion seminar is scheduled for early October and a link to register will be up on the website (www.ihea.org) in the near future. You can also purchase a video recording of a recent Combustion Seminar by clicking here. The cost is $960 (less for IHEA members). The course includes the following (plus more):
chemistry and efficiency of combustion
types of industrial burners available and how they are applied for efficient operation
supply and control of the fuel and air for these systems including piping design and valve selection
flame safety requirements of combustion systems
process and ratio controls with exposure to micro-processor equipment
furnace pressure controls for operation and efficiency improvements
preheated combustion air and furnace recuperators
NOX and other emissions: what causes them and how to minimize them
infrared process heating overview and applications
IHEA also offers an Induction Webinar and a Safety Webinar for training your employees how to safely operate and work around heat treating equipment. The next iteration of these face-to-face seminars are scheduled for early October. Check back to IHEA’s website for exact details.
IHEA also offers a very comprehensive online training course which covers many of the fundamentals of heat treating. More information at https://www.ihea.org/events/event_list.asp.
MTI Training Opportunities
The MTI offers equally good training in its Online Academy (click here for more information). The course offering is broad and very professionally presented. The Online Academy comes at a very affordable price of $1,400-$2,800 per year for up to 10 “seats”.
The Academy for Heat Treaters has both technical and managerial content. With over 175 hours of training, there is a wide array of heat treat topics to help management and line personnel understand the technical aspects of heat treating as well as “think” like a heat treater.
Since its inception, the MTI Academy has held over 25,000 classes all across the world. It satisfies minimum training requirements for Nadcap, ISO, and most other certification bodies.
Sample MTI Certificate of Completion available for completing certain MTI Academy training courses.
Within the Academy, students can earn four different certificates:
Courses can be purchased individually or through the Academy Annual Corporate Subscription Program which provides unlimited use of all 175+ hours of training for a heat treat plant.
There’s More
The above listing of courses is not all that can be said about the offering from either organization. More can be found at each organization’s website or by contacting me directly with any questions. Click here to send me an email.
With the need for training being real, both of these organizations have well-developed educational and training programs that are worth pursuing.
See the first two Special Reports by Heat TreatTodaypublisher Doug Glenn here:
Special Report by Doug Glenn, Heat Treat Today Publisher
Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today
As mentioned in yesterday's special report, the Metal Treating Institute (MTI) and the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) kicked off their combined triennial meeting yesterday in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Talking Stick Resort.
For manufacturers with in-house heat treat departments, this event carries significance . . . even though it is not an event many (or any) of you might attend. It's at this event where the suppliers of your equipment, components, technology, and know-how update and hone their skills for helping you accomplish the heat treating you do every day.
Because many of you in the aerospace, automotive, medical, and energy sectors may know and recognize some of the attendees at this event (and because we all like seeing OUR pictures online!), today's Special Report is a selection of photos taken at last night's Opening Reception. Enjoy today's Special Report and let your favorite vendor know you saw them on Heat Treat Today if/when you see them next.
Also, special thanks goes out to these three generous sponsors for helping to underwrite the cost of this event:
Manufacturers with in-house heat treat would benefit from what’s going on this week in Scottsdale, Arizona. As many of you have expressed, experts are leaving your organizations, and they are not easy to replace.
Heat Treat Today recently had a manufacturer in the mid-Atlantic region call to say, “We need help with stress relieving!” They had nowhere to turn so they called us. This same type of thing is happening time and time again across the country as those with in-house heat treat knowledge retire or move on to other companies.
Where does a manufacturer with in-house heat treat turn for heat treating knowledge?
Besides subscribing to one of Heat TreatToday‘s regular newsletters and visiting the website periodically, in-house heat treaters can tap into the resources that have converged on Scottsdale this week. Starting today at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, North America’s largest gathering of heat treating industry professionals are holding a combined meeting with two of the nation’s most prestigious thermal processing organizations:
MTI — The Metal Treating Institute is a network of over 300 commercial/contract heat treating companies and suppliers.
Both of these organizations have separate semi-annual meetings, but once every 3 years they have a combined mega-meeting that brings in one of the largest gatherings of heat treat intelligence in all of North America. Companies from Canada, Mexico, and the USA are represented. This week’s meeting has drawn over 200 attendees and is full of educational sessions and networking opportunities to keep North America’s heat treat minds fresh and progressive.
Companies with in-house heat treat should consider tapping into one or both of these organizations to help them fill the brain drain that is happening and will continue to happen over the next decade.
Brain drain is a real phenomenon.
Heat TreatToday spoke with one company who estimated that up to 60 percent of the heat treat brains in their organization will retire within the next 10 years. This is not an isolated case. Baby boomers, who make up the vast majority of today’s heat treat industry brain trust, are beginning to retire and there are not enough metallurgists graduating from North American universities to fill the gap. Where are these manufacturers with in-house heat treat going to turn for specific, real-life heat treat help?
MTI CEO, Tom Morrison takes a “selfie” with Heat Treat Today’s Mary and Doug Glenn in Scottsdale, Arizona, as plans are being finalized for this week’s big heat treat brain trust meeting.
Both MTI and IHEA encourage manufacturers with in-house heat treat to join their organizations. This would be a great place to start. Both of these organizations are capable of fielding nearly any heat treat-related questions and if they don’t know the answers, they know people who will know the answers.
Both organizations also provide excellent training programs targeted especially for manufacturers with in-house heat treat.
IHEA’s combustion, safety, and induction seminars are all highly rated and reasonably priced. For more information on these courses, click here.
MTI offers a wide spectrum of heat treating courses in their “Heat Treat Academy”. Some are free, some come at a price. Click here for more information on the Heat Treat Academy.
So, here is a challenge. If you are a manufacturer with in-house heat treat, and your company is located near Scottsdale, Arizona, I suggest you send one or more of your top heat treat personnel over to the Talking Stick hotel/resort/casino sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday to join in on the meetings of top heat treat minds. If you’re brave and compulsive enough to take the challenge, please send me an email and I’ll help make the arrangements.
Otherwise, think about joining one or both of these organizations.
Finally, you can always contact Heat Treat Today with any heat treat related problems or questions.
The Industrial Heating Equipment Association’s monthly economic executive summary reported very strong gains for both automotive and light truck sales as well as new home starts. Regarding new home starts, here is an extended quote for the 12-page monthly report available in full to IHEA members:
The news in the housing sector is very good right now and that is in the face of those headwinds that have been referenced all year. Thus far the consumer is shrugging out the higher price of homes as well as the bigger down payments and there has been buying at a variety of levels – from the starter home to the much more expensive “McMansion.” The fastest growing segment is still the multi-family home and there are still major shortages of this kind of abode. The recovery this month after a down period the month before is somewhat related to the weather, but not as much as would have been assumed this time of year. There is evidence that housing activity is surging in the jobs data as well – over 60,000 jobs added in construction this month. The majority of these are in the housing sector as there has not been a huge recovery in either commercial construction or in public sector activity.
The dozen indicators reported were split evenly between those that were up and those that were down. Significant is the fact that the PMI saw a slight dip but has been strong, in the mid-sixties, for quite some time, reaching a peak in December 2017 at 70.
Anyone interested in receiving a copy of the full report which includes statistics and analysis of the following indicators should contact Anne Goyer, Executive Director of IHEA. You can email Anne by clicking here.
The Industrial Heating Equipment Association recently announced registration, sponsorship and conference details for ITPS — The International ThermProcess Summit — to be held in Atlanta, George, July 30-August 1, 2018. This two-and-a-half day executive-level summit is designed to bring upper management from manufacturing plants and industry suppliers together for networking and information exchange.
ITPS 2018 will be held at Atlanta’s Intercontinental Hotel and be joined by the IFCS 2018 — International Finishing and Coatings Summit. Sponsored in the USA by the Industrial Heating Equipment Association and Chemical Coaters Association International, this event will feature cutting-edge general sessions and breakout sessions for both thermoprocessing and finishing that will address:
Strategies for the future of thermal process and finishing industries
Economic updates from the Americas
Technological advancements, trends, and their impact on our industries
A tabletop exhibition inside the General Session ballroom will complement an outstanding Summit program along with networking activities. Sponsorship and tabletop space is now available. IHEA members will have the first opportunity to reserves sponsorships and tabletops.
The monthly heat treat industry report released by the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) showed year-high industrial capacity utilization coming in with a 77.1% figure, the highest number seen in recent history.
Industrial Capacity Utilization is at a 12-month high.
The report covers roughly a dozen other key indicators important to many in the heat treating industry. The January report also showed increases in auto production, new home starts, and a handful of other regularly-reported indices. There were some falling numbers: steel consumption and capital expenditures both dipped in December.
Other indices in the report include: metal prices (aluminum, copper, steel, nickel), the purchasing managers index, durable goods shipments, and factory orders to mention a few.
The report does not only report on indices, it also includes commentary from IHEA’s economic consultant who is keenly involved in the heat treating industry.
To receive these monthly reports, contact Anne Goyer, Executive Director at IHEA.
IHEA has announced the International ThermProcess Summit 2018 (ITPS 2018) will take place July 30--August 1, 2018, at the Intercontinental Hotel in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Georgia.
To provide expanded opportunities for participants, the International Finishing & Coatings Summit (IFCS), sponsored by the Chemical Coaters Association International (CCAI) and its official publication, Products Finishing, will be located alongside ITPS 2018. Many IFCS participants use heat treating technologies to cure coatings.
The itinerary includes joint general sessions on business topics for executives and breakout sessions on thermprocess technologies and finishing and coating technologies. Tabletop displays will be set up along the perimeter of the general session ballroom and attendees will be able to visit tables during breaks and the lunch hour.
For more event details in the coming months, visit www.itps-ifcs.com. (IHEA members will have the first opportunity to reserve sponsorships and tabletops.)
Heat TreatToday is a proudly serving as a title sponsor of this event along with the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA).
