Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance

Join the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance and our Director of Workforce Development Dr. Sharon Harrison for a timely discussion of Apprenticeships: The Nuts & Bolts. The online session will go live Wednesday, June 23 at 10 a.m. Register here: https://bit.ly/2RZfEkt Special guest Jeffrey Lashuay, mechanical general supervisor at Commercial Metals Company, will share his experiences implementing successful apprenticeship strategies at his manufacturing facility. In addition, Harrison, Jennifer Cowns, and other partners will outline manufacturing apprenticeship programs in the Oklahoma and share what kind of assistance is available to develop plans that meet specific workforce needs.

This week’s manufacturing economic update shows new orders for durable goods declined 1.3% in April, falling for the first time in 12 months, largely on supply chain disruptions in the motor vehicles and parts sector. Excluding transportation equipment, new durable goods orders rose 1.0% in April. Overall, the durable goods sector is growing rapidly, with significant gains since declining sharply last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, durable goods orders have jump...ed 6.6% over the past 14 months, or 15.1% with transportation equipment excluded. Chief Economist Chad Moutray and the National Association of Manufacturers have other essential takes on economic indicators here: https://bit.ly/3ySXK3j Elsewhere, nondefense capital goods excluding aircrafta proxy for capital spending in the U.S. economyrose 2.3% from $73.3 billion to $75.0 billion in April, another new record. Core capital goods orders have soared 15.6% over the past 14 months, as firms have ramped up activity on the brighter economic outlook. Manufacturers in the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank districtwhich includes Oklahomacontinued to report solid expansions in activity, with an optimistic outlook. Yet, raw material costs have soared, with prices for finished products also up sharply. Respondents also noted supply chain and logistics constraints as well as workforce recruitment challenges among their concerns. The PCE deflator rose 0.6% in April, and excluding food and energy prices, it increased 0.7% for the month, the most since October 2001. Overall, the PCE deflator has risen 3.6% year-over-year, the most since September 2008, and core inflation has increased 3.1% since April 2020, the fastest pace since July 1992. To be fair, Moutray notes, there are base effects that are skewing these inflation data, with deflationary pressures in the comparison month last year. Since February 2020, the PCE deflator has risen 2.8%, with core inflation up 2.5% over the past 14 months. Even with this adjustment, it is clear that cost pressures have accelerated.

Whirlpool Corporation said this week it is investing $15 million into its Oklahoma factory as part of the company's ongoing efforts to strengthen its U.S. manufacturing capabilities and bring more innovation, top ranking consumer products and high-quality jobs to the region. In conjunction with its investment, Whirlpool will receive an additional $1 million from the state of Oklahoma through its Business Expansion Investment Program (BEIP). The plant produces freestanding and... slide-in ranges under the Whirlpool, Amana, Maytag, KitchenAid and JennAir brands. Through funding from both parties, Whirlpool Corporation expects to create approximately 150 new jobs, building on the company's Tulsa expansion project announced in 2018. With the additional investment, Whirlpool Corporation is committed to increase its factory headcount to a total of over 2000 employees in Tulsa. In March of 2020, Whirlpool Corporation opened an 800,000 square foot Factory Distribution Center which doubled the size of its footprint in Tulsa.

Manufacturing is uniquely positioned to strengthen the US recovery over the long term because of its outsize economic contributions. Take a look at the new report from McKinsey & Company here: https://lnkd.in/es6fueT... The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored manufacturing’s role in providing products that are critical to health, safety, national security, and the continuity of multiple industries. It has also revealed the extent to which global supply chains are exposed to shocks and disruptions. All of this has occurred at a moment when new technologies, proecss innovations, and demand growth are reshaping the sector worldwide.

This week’s manufacturing economic update shows job openings in the sector soaring to 706,000 in Marcha new record. Business leaders need to ramp up production, capacity and staffing in light of robust demand, the reopening of the U.S. and global economy and the very strong economic outlook for the coming months. As a result, job postings have risen to stratospheric levels. These data offer an encouraging sign that manufacturers feel confident enough about economic growth ov...er the coming months for their businesses to post new jobs. Chief Economist Chad Moutray and the National Association of Manufacturers have other essential takes on economic indicators here: https://bit.ly/3uVBgfI Elsewhere, manufacturing production rose 0.4% in April, extending the 3.1% gain in March. Excluding motor vehicles, which plummeted 4.3% due to supply chain challenges, manufacturing production increased 0.6% in April. Since February 2020, output in the manufacturing sector is down 1.7% from pre-pandemic levels. I continue to expect manufacturing production to be back to pre-pandemic levels by July. Consumer confidence declined from 88.3 in April to 82.8 in May, a three-month low, according to preliminary data from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters. Americans felt less upbeat in their assessments of both current and future economic conditions, largely on worries about inflation. The expected increase in prices was the largest in a decade in the survey, and accordingly, real income expectations were also weaker.

A wind energy company says it will establish a new factory to assemble wind turbines in southwest Oklahoma. Carter Wind Energy, based in Wichita Falls, Texas, says its Carter Wind Turbines subsidiary would invest $10 million in the new facility about 50 miles away in Lawton, The Lawton Constitution reports. The company expects the project to create 300 jobs over the next five years. The plant will be the company's first facility dedicated to the production of portable turbine...s. The site could also ship completed turbines to their destinations in remote areas of Alaska and Canada. The turbines are designed to withstand harsh weather and provide energy to "off the grid" communities that currently rely on expensive diesel fuel to provide electricity. Carter officials say the turbines could slash energy costs by about 50% across hundreds of prospective sites. The company credited Oklahoma's CareerTech program, the area's labor force, and the presence of nearby Fort Sill for its selection of Lawton. Construction on the facility is expected to begin soon; no official date was announced, but the company reportedly wants to start shipping turbines by next summer. Carter hopes to assemble 100 turbines in its first year in Lawton, and, the paper reports, double that total each subsequent year.

A big thank you to Rep. Brad Boles for leading an important day at the Capitol this week, acknowledging the importance of manufacturing to our economy and celebrating the launch of Connex Oklahoma.

An aerospace company from Israel announced this week a business relocation and expansion to Tulsa that is expected to add more than 300 jobs to the metro area. TAT Technologies Ltd., parent company of Tulsa-based Limco Airepair, Inc., said it plans to move its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) of thermal components to Tulsa and enlarge Limco, which focuses on maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of thermal components. TAT, the world’s largest independent manufacturing/...repair company of thermal components for the aviation industry, also plans to establish a new global research and development center within its Tulsa campus. The new facility and the planned investments in technologies and human resources will enable TAT to leverage synergies, improve efficiency and provide better value to customers. The company will work with local CareerTech campuses to recruit welders and other necessary technical trades.

Connex Oklahoma improves the competitiveness of industries in the region and contains indepth information on Oklahoma manufacturers with detailed search functions to highlight production capabilities, equipment, material types and more. Sign up and learn more at: www.okalliance.com/connex-oklahoma

This week’s manufacturing economic update shows that after falling 0.9% in February, largely from poor weather and supply chain disruptions, new orders for durable goods rose 0.5% in March, or growth of 1.6% with transportation equipment excluded. Overall, the durable goods sector is growing rapidly, rising 4.1% over the past 13 months, or 10.8% with transportation equipment excluded since February 2020. Nondefense capital goods excluding aircrafta proxy for capital spending... in the U.S. economyrose 0.9% to $73.2 billion in March, a new record. Core capital goods orders have soared 10.2% over the past 13 months, as firms have ramped up activity on the brighter economic outlook. Chief Economist Chad Moutray and the National Association of Manufacturers have other essential takes on economic indicators here: https://bit.ly/3eKBCPk Elsewhere, personal income soared 21.1% in March, buoyed largely by stimulus checks, the largest monthly increase in the history of the series, which dates to January 1959. Total wages and salaries increased 1.1% in March, or 1.9% in the first quarter overall. Aggregated manufacturing wages and salaries rose 1.4% in March but remained 1.1% lower than before the pandemic. Personal consumption expenditures increased 4.2% in March, bouncing back from the 1.0% decline in February and the largest monthly increase since June 2020. Durable and nondurable goods purchases jumped 10.8% and 6.5%, respectively, with service-sector spending up 2.2%. Despite the solid increase in personal consumption expenditures in March, the data suggest that Americans saved more of their extra dollars than they spent. As a result, the saving rate nearly doubled from 13.9% in February to 27.6% in March, the highest since April 2020 (33.7%).

Check out an awesome story on KXII-TV about Oklahoma School for the Deaf's robotics team winning a national championship at the VEX IQ Challenge:. Congratulations to OSD Head Coach Kym Vance, Jarven Reininger, Russell Fewel and OSD Assistant Coach Kelsey Jones. https://lnkd.in/gy_Q-SS h/t Oklahoma Department of Commerce