Last week, one media outlet reported that manufacturing has been in a “technical recession” for the past six months. I am more hesitant to use the R-word to describe the sector’s performance year-to-date, and in my view, this description somewhat overstates the significance of broader market trends, particularly for expectations moving forward. At the same time, manufacturing production has declined since late last year, as illustrated in the graphic above. A number of significant economic headwinds have reduced output in four of the past six months, reducing the year-over-year pace of growth in the sector from 4.5 percent in November to 1.8 percent in May. Capacity utilization has also declined for five consecutive months, down from 78.1 percent in December to 77.0 percent in May.

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PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) reached a definitive agreement to acquire IVC Industrial Coatings, Inc., a U.S.-based specialty powder and liquid coatings manufacturer with 2014 sales of more than $100 million. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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George Koch Sons, LLC has acquired Walgren Company, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that provides turnkey anodizing and plating systems to the aerospace, military, industrial, and automotive industries around the world. The systems are used to automate material flow during surface treatments such as plating, cleaning or chemical processing of manufactured parts. Walgren will become part of George Koch Sons and will continue to serve its growing customer base from Grand Rapids and Dongguan, China. Walgren will join Price-Koch Industries as divisions of George Koch Sons.

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The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book reported that the economy expanded modestly in its recent assessment. More importantly, it said that activity for manufacturers “held steady or increased over the reporting period” in all of its regions except for the Dallas and Kansas City districts. 

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The U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter for the second year in a row, with revised data showing thatreal GDP declined by 0.7 percent. This was down from an earlier estimate of 0.2 percent growth. Overall, this was a disappointing start to 2015. That is particularly true when you look at the optimism that many businesses had at the start of the year. Yet, manufacturers faced a number of significant headwinds in recent months, including weaknesses abroad, a strong U.S. dollar, lower crude oil prices, the residual effects of the West Coast ports slowdown, bad weather in some regions of the country and a still-cautious consumer.

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PCI® Committees are making great strides in pushing our association forward. One worthy of mention is the Industry Communications Committee, chair...

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Nearly everyone in this industry knows that properly curing the powder coating on a part is important. However, cooling the part is equally important ...

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Powder coating wood substrates is nothing new. Specifically, powder coatings have been applied to medium density fiberboard (MDF) since the late 1990s...

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“In just three years in my position as Executive Director of the Powder Coating Institute, I cannot count the number of times I have heard some ...

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