ewlsey
Diamond
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2009
- Location
- Peoria, IL
I wasn't a shop owner in 2008, but I was working in manufacturing. Things in this area are sure starting to feel eerily similar.
Caterpillar is forecasting declining sales for a 4th year (first time that's ever happened). Today they announced 5000 people will be permanently laid off by the end of 2016, possibly another 5000 by the end of 2018. Some 20 Cat facilities will be permanently closed.
Every shop I know that does work for Cat is laying off workers, cutting hours, or flat out closing the doors. I'm getting multiple phone calls a day of people looking for work. We have not advertised any positions ever, and keep a very low profile.
Mitsubishi is going to close the Diamond Star auto plant in Normal in November. No buyer has been found. 1200 jobs will be lost.
Corn prices are down to $3.80/bushel despite forecasts of a pretty weak harvest. We had one of the wettest summers on record. John Deere and CNH are both down 50% in sales from last year, and last year wasn't a good year.
I just bought some cold rolled bars last week. The price actually went down for the first time in 5 years. Aluminum seems to be pretty steady.
Oil is $40/barrel or something ridiculous. It nice that gas prices are low. But, now the company that picks up my waste oil is going to start charging $75 per trip (it's 5 miles away). They used to take it for free and even pay for it if you had a good supply of clean oil. They claim they can't get rid of used oil and are just stock piling it until the price recovers.
Scrap metal prices are below $100/ton for the best of the best. Chips are closer to $50/ton. My storage area is bulging at the seams.
So, what say you? It's not feeling too good around here. Everyone keeps talking about a recovery, but it's going to other way in central IL.
For the record, we're still reasonably busy. We're small enough that it probably won't really affect us. But, I know that is not going to be the case for many others.
Caterpillar is forecasting declining sales for a 4th year (first time that's ever happened). Today they announced 5000 people will be permanently laid off by the end of 2016, possibly another 5000 by the end of 2018. Some 20 Cat facilities will be permanently closed.
Every shop I know that does work for Cat is laying off workers, cutting hours, or flat out closing the doors. I'm getting multiple phone calls a day of people looking for work. We have not advertised any positions ever, and keep a very low profile.
Mitsubishi is going to close the Diamond Star auto plant in Normal in November. No buyer has been found. 1200 jobs will be lost.
Corn prices are down to $3.80/bushel despite forecasts of a pretty weak harvest. We had one of the wettest summers on record. John Deere and CNH are both down 50% in sales from last year, and last year wasn't a good year.
I just bought some cold rolled bars last week. The price actually went down for the first time in 5 years. Aluminum seems to be pretty steady.
Oil is $40/barrel or something ridiculous. It nice that gas prices are low. But, now the company that picks up my waste oil is going to start charging $75 per trip (it's 5 miles away). They used to take it for free and even pay for it if you had a good supply of clean oil. They claim they can't get rid of used oil and are just stock piling it until the price recovers.
Scrap metal prices are below $100/ton for the best of the best. Chips are closer to $50/ton. My storage area is bulging at the seams.
So, what say you? It's not feeling too good around here. Everyone keeps talking about a recovery, but it's going to other way in central IL.
For the record, we're still reasonably busy. We're small enough that it probably won't really affect us. But, I know that is not going to be the case for many others.