The U.S. Census Bureau also announced that manufacturers sales and shipments for March, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1.2 trillion, 2.2 percent from February 2011 and 0.4 percent from March 2010.
05/11/11 West Springfield - Republican Photo by Michael S. Gordon - Getting ready for Eastec 2011 at the Eastern State Exposition, James H.Cepican, General Manger of Tooling & Accessories at Citizen Machinery America Inc. of Agawam. Eastec runs May 17-19.WEST SPRINGFIELD – Brooks Associates Inc., a dealer of precision metal-working equipment based in Norwell, will spend $75,000 to $80,000 exhibiting at Eastec 2011 at the Eastern States Exhibition Grounds in West Springfield.
That includes bringing in equipment that can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and setting up and staffing the company’s booth at the three-day fair, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
And Peter J. Klier, an owner of Brooks Associates, said it might take a few months, but he expects to generate $3 million to $4 million worth of orders from contacts the company makes this week in West Springfield.
“Manufacturing is coming back,” said Klier, who owns the company with brothers Joseph D. Klier Jr. and Michael R. Klier. “It’s manufacturing that is really leading this country back out of the recession.”
05/11/11 West Springfield - Republican Photo by Michael S. Gordon - Getting ready for Eastec 2011at the Eastern State Expostion are Jospeh D. Klier Jr., left and Peter J. Klier, right from Brooks Associates of Norwell Mass. Eastec is open May 17-19.
James H. Cepican, general manager of the tooling and accessories division for Citizen Machinery Inc. in Agawam said industries like medical devices, aeronautics, electronics and alternative energy are all seeing orders pick up. That demand trickles down to the mom-and-pop job machine shops that proliferate here in the Pioneer Valley. As their orders pick up, they buy more and newer equipment to maximize productivity.
“The end of 2010 was very strong and it continued on,” Cepican said. “ March was one of our best months ever. Manufacturing is just really hot right now.”
Among the models Cepican will have on display is a $230,000 milling machine that can turn a 12-foot-long bar of stainless steel into thimble-sized parts for spinal implants.
“We’ll have a machine over there that makes bone screws,” Cepican said.
Interest in Eastec is one gauge of that recovery, said Kimberly L. Farrugia, senior show manager for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Michigan-based organization that puts on Eastec every year. There will be 500 exhibitors at Eastec this year, up from 486 in 2010. Organizers expect about 14,000 visitors, up from about 11,000 last year.
Eastec also promises 130 new products introduced since the last Eastec on display this week at the Big E, Farrugia said.
Admission is free to those who registered by the end of last week. Admission at the door is $50. Eastec runs from 9 am. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday.
On Thursday, 250 vocational-school students from around the region will attend the show, Farrugia said. They’ll get a chance to visit booths and check out new technologies.
Nationally, factory orders rose 3 percent to a seasonally adjusted $463 billion in March, well above Wall Street economists’ forecasts of a 1.9 percent pickup, the Associated Press reported last week.
The U.S. Census Bureau also announced that manufacturers sales and shipments for March, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1.2 trillion, 2.2 percent from February 2011 and 0.4 percent from March 2010.
The reason, economists say, is that the relatively weak U.S. dollar is making American-made goods less expensive than foreign-made goods and things Made in the USA are more affordable to foreign buyers.
“Reshoring,” said Joseph D. Klier said. “A lot of our customers are bringing production back from overseas. They don’t like the quality and the product is too expensive to ship. Also it increases the lead time. In New England we can turn orders around quickly.”