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Supply
Chain by the Numbers |
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April 3, 2025
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ProMat Show Sets Record. Robot Policy Advise from A3. US Manufacturing Contracts in March. NRF with 2025 Retail Sales Forecast |
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52,223 |
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| That is how many registrants there were for the recent ProMat tradeshow in Chicago. That was a new record number, and up 3% from the most recent ProMat before it in 2003. That data was from show sponsor MHI released later last week. MHI does not announced numbers about how many actually attended this year’s show. ProMat added a third hall of exhibitors this year, called Lakeside, allowing ProMat to house 1160 booths for this year’s show, another record. The show said attendees came from 143 different countries. |
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| That was the level of the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for March, released this week by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). That was down from 50.3 in February, falling below the key 50 mark that separates US manufacturing expansion from contraction, after two short months of expansion in January and February. Prior to that was a long 26-month stretch of contraction. The New Orders Index was again in contraction territory, registering 45.2, which was 3.4 percentage points lower than the 48.6 recorded in February, in bad news for future US manufacturing activity. The March reading of the Production Index (48.3) was 2.4 percentage points lower than February’s figure of 50.7, moving into contraction. Not good. |
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2.7%-to-3.7% |
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| That is the expected rise in US retail sales forecasted for 2025 this week by the National Retail Federation (NRF). NRF noted that its projection matches up with its 10-year pre-pandemic average annual sales growth rate of 3.6%. With inflation seeming sure to top 2% this year, it means real growth in retail sales would be just about 1% or so. As a note, NRF’s retail sales numbers and projections are based on Census data and excludes automobile dealers, gas stations, and restaurants. Meanwhile, non-store and on-line sales are expected to head up 7%-to-9% to between $1.57 trillion-to-$1.6 trillion. |
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That’s how many policy recommendations relative to the US maintaining a global lead in robot technology that was sent to Congress this week by the Association for Advancing Automation -better known as A3. Number 1: Establish a Central Government Robotics Office and a Robotics Commission. Others are focused on tax policy, standards and more. “The United States is at a critical moment in shaping the future of automation,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. “While AI is a major focus, we cannot afford to fall behind in robotics.”
