TROY, NY – (BUSINESS WIRE) – 08/10/05 – The U.S. industrial sector is less optimistic about seeing increases in component and services spending during 2005’s second half than it was at this time in 2004, according to a new survey of industrial organizations on U.S. economic conditions. Their views were found in surveys conducted by GlobalSpec, the leading specialized search engine for the engineering community.

A significant 92 percent of respondents anticipate overall 2005 revenue of their firms will be ahead of or the same as year-end 2004 revenue. At mid-year, 83 percent say their revenue is running ahead of or on target for 2005. These results indicate a steady improvement in the industrial sector over the past few years; GlobalSpec’s comparable mid-year 2002 survey found just 64 percent saying revenues were ahead of or on target for that year. Companies reporting they have made headcount reductions at mid-year 2005 are far fewer than previous years as well. Eighteen percent of respondents report headcount reductions this year, compared to 42 percent at the same point in 2002.

Other results from the GlobalSpec studies of industrial sector opinions revealed a certain slowness and overall inadequacies in the way many suppliers respond to product and service-related information sought from prospective buyers, particularly involving information requested via e-mail. Only 20 percent of respondents say they consistently (i.e. more than 95 percent of the time) receive the information requested from suppliers, and 43 percent report they must wait between three and seven days to receive a response to e-mail inquiries.

Additional findings from GlobalSpec’s mid-year 2005 surveys include:

• 22 percent say their companies have increased prices in 2005 compared to 16 percent in 2004
• 55 percent believe improving production efficiencies is the top operating issue facing their company, followed closely by improving quality (52 percent), lowering raw material costs (51 percent) and speeding new product development (49 percent). Only 34 percent cite rising energy costs as a source of worry; just 20 percent say offshore competition is a key concern.
• 47 percent say they expect to see a shortage of newly-licensed engineers entering the field over the next five years
• 91 percent say they have used the Internet to find components and suppliers
• 41 percent report spending six or more hours each week on the Internet for work-related purposes

Results from the surveys can be accessed at http://www.globalspec.com/GSSurveyResults0805.

About GlobalSpec, Inc.

GlobalSpec is the leading specialized search engine for the engineering community. Engineers and technical buyers regularly use GlobalSpec's trademarked search technology, SpecSearch®, to search by specification more than 84 million parts in 1,200,000 product families from more than 14,500 supplier catalogs. GlobalSpec also provides access to The Engineering Web^sm — more than 200 million pages of highly-organized, filtered technical content including products, services, standards, patents, materials properties, designs, application notes and proprietary content unavailable on other search engines. Suppliers representing their products and services on GlobalSpec gain a comprehensive marketing program designed to promote their brand and generate, track and manage highly-qualified sales leads. Information about GlobalSpec can be found at http://www.globalspec.com.

GlobalSpec and SpecSearch are registered trademarks and The Engineering Search Engine and The Engineering Web are service marks of GlobalSpec, Inc.

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GlobalSpec Marketing
E-mail: marketing@globalspec.com

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