NPES Third Quarter Equipment Shipments Data--Some Good News, Some Bad

We’re still looking at total year-end shipments of approximately $1.42 billion which was the outlook after the 2nd quarter data was released. If you look at Figure 1 above, which shows the quarter over quarter percentage change since our last “good” year which was 2006, you see that the rate of decline quarter over quarter is slowing, which indicates that we may be nearing the bottom. Continuing on the positive side, the 4th quarter of the year has historically been the best quarter for equipment shipments, however this may be tempered by the continued deterioration of the overall U.S. economy.