Signs Of Life And Recovery Around The Global Marketplace - How Are Things In Your Neck Of The Woods?

The PEiR Group

There may still be a long road ahead of us as some have said, but recent developments have given rise to hope that the nation is about to emerge from the worst recession since World War II.

“Recession is over, economy is recovering – let’s look forward and stop the backward-looking focus,” John E. Silvia, the Wells Fargo chief economist, wrote Tuesday.

“We’ve found the bottom,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic, a data firm monitoring housing starts and sales.

Perhaps, we’re all watching and hoping, that’s for sure. But other indicators have arisen to indicate a return to more prosperous times for America and the world.

In China, that country’s largest state-owned construction company pocketed $7.3 billion from investors after an initial public offering of it shares attracted widespread attention. Although the slowdown in the country’s growth caused China State Construction Engineering Corp’s profits to fall last year, its IPO is by far the largest in China this year and the world’s biggest since Visa raised $19 billion in its IPO 16 months ago.

In Europe, nearly a quarter of wide-format printers in the industry today expect business to improve during the remainder of this year with 14 percent already reporting signs of recovery, a recent survey indicates.

In a survey of 400 European printers, 23 percent are pinning hopes on an upturn in the latter part of this year, 25.6 percent expect a change of fortunes to emerge in early 2010. A similar figure anticipates an upturn later, in the second half of the year and less than 12 percent expect conditions to last into 2011.

Fully 83 percent of the survey's respondents say their companies are well-positioned to “take advantage” of market conditions when it rebounds.

And there you have it. Hopefully, we’ll all be on our way soon.

"Shaun's Corner" - What's That Light I See?

By Shaun Meany
The PEiR Group

Thanks for all your calls and email these last few weeks. Your feedback, ideas, and good humor are essential to my getting a handle on our industry's mood and overall perception of market conditions.

I'm not here to be a cheerleader. That's not my role. I'm here to help our members get through this downturn in any way I can, and to share any insight I may have that indicates light at the end of the tunnel.

While some may wryly say the only light they see in the tunnel is on the front of the train running straight at them, there are indicators of a turnaround - certainly not tomorrow, or the next day - but coming. And we all need to be prepared to catch the wind when it starts to blow our way again.

Why so optimistic, you ask? Well, I'm hearing that while public construction projects are in a holding pattern, private jobs are still buzzing in certain sectors, and there has been some shift in attention given to non-AEC work by our members.

I'm not going to lie, we're in for a bumpy ride. But if we "Manage for Success" and make the right moves, I believe we can come out of this economic malaise stronger and with more opportunity ahead for all of us.

The target areas that reprographers need to focus on are federal government agencies like DOT, Harbors, Navy, Marine, Army and Air Force, US Army Corp of Engineers and prisons. Call on state and local agencies like building departments, DOT, Public Works and Schools, prisons - there are projects there and jobs to be had.

Private sector institutions, hospitals and stadiums, energy alternatives (wind, solar and other) are also weathering the current storm.

I believe the stimulus package will include two key components that should help the AEC market; significant infrastructure funding increases and beneficial changes in the tax code to promote more business investment. The transportation sector will be a major beneficiary, along with significant investments in water, energy and school and other public construction projects.

A recession is often a stimulus for the adoption of new technologies which means our AEC customers will be looking to deploy technologies that allow them to re-invent their inefficient processes. One process that is sure to be retooled is the bid process.

This is not the time to sit back and wait for the marketplace to reignite itself. Reprographers need to be out in front of their customers discussing their technologies and explaining that this is a perfect time for their customers to invest time in learning these new systems. So when the market does catch fire again these new systems can be used to increase productivity and - by extension - revenues for the reprographics industry.

And The PEiR Group will be here to help in any way we can. Good times or bad, just pick up the phone or drop an entry into this blog. We answer every call or email we get and we look forward to hearing from you.

We're going to get through this. And we look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it to Las Vegas on March 5th.

We'll have some fun and get down to business,

Regards,

Shaun