NFPA: All Indicators Still Down

Encompassing the hydraulic and pneumatic systems used in industrial and machine tool applications, fluid power touches nearly every segment of the economy as a whole and can help identify business trends in the advance of many other signals.

The latest data published by the National Fluid Power Association shows industry shipments of fluid power products for April 2020 decreased 29.5% when compared to April 2019 and decreased 23.0% when compared to last month. Mobile hydraulic, industrial hydraulic, and pneumatic shipments decreased in April 2020 when compared to April 2019. Mobile hydraulic, industrial hydraulic, and pneumatic shipments decreased when compared to last month. These charts are drawn from data collected from more than 80 manufacturers of fluid power products by NFPA’s Confidential Shipment Statistics (CSS) program. Much more information is available to NFPA members. Contact NFPA at 414‐778‐3344 for more info.

Shipments — Cumulative year-to-date % change 

The table above is expressed in terms of cumulative percent changes. These changes refer to the percent difference between the relevant cumulative total for 2020 and the total for the same months in 2019. For example, the March 2020 pneumatic shipments figure of -8.3% means that for the calendar year through March 2020, pneumatic shipments decreased 8.3% compared to the same time period in 2019. (Base Year 2018 = 100).

Hydraulic and Pneumatic Shipments

This graph of raw index data is generated by the total dollar volume reported to the NFPA by CSS participants and compared to the average monthly dollar volume in 2018. For example, the April 2020 total dollar volume for pneumatic shipments are 78.5% of the average monthly dollar volume in 2018 (Base Year 2018 = 100).

Pneumatic, Mobile and Industrial Hydraulic Orders Index

Each point on this graph represents the most recent 12 months of orders compared to the previous 12 months of orders. Each point can be read as a percentage. For example, the 80.6 level of the March 2020 industrial hydraulic series indicates that the industrial hydraulic orders received from April 2019 to March 2020 were 80.6% of the orders received from April 2018 to March 2019 (Base Year 2018 = 100).

Total – Hydraulic and Pneumatic Shipments

This graph of 12-month moving averages shows that in April 2020, both hydraulic and pneumatic shipments decreased (Base Year 2018 = 100).