Is the downtime over?

Again, this is just my own thinking and you need to keep that in mind when reading this.

In Europe I can see clearly that machinery investments within Tube Industry are getting up again. It seems that the downtime in Europe was something like 10 months. Companies are starting to trust to the present development. It may be busy fall this year in Europe.

In Asia the situation seems to be different. The low economy has been there for many years so nobody expects something fast growth. But I have noticed also that things are picking up in Asia also. South-Korea, Australia and New Zealand are the countries that I have got positive signals. Japan is still in recession.

What about USA? Well, Investments have been waiting there and will still wait for a while. But positive thing is that the very last information I have got from USA was saying that the phone is ringing more already..It is very sensitive thing but I think that once the big players like automotive and air-conditioning industry will notice the recovery of demand, the time for Tube people is there again. From machinery point of view the investments in USA have been very low for 1.5 years. It is clear that when the products are selling again more, there is needed replacement of old machinery.

Cheers!
Juha Haapala