CEMA: 2018 shipments in North America up 18%

The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) has released a report indicating 2018 shipments in North America were up 18%.

CEMA estimates shipments totaled $16.7 billion for 2018, a record level and an increase of $2.7 billion from 2017 shipments of $14 billion.

CEMA estimates new orders totaled $15.9 billion in 2018. New orders in 2018 were $1.7 billion more than 2017, representing an increase of 11%.

Unit handling orders were up 12% and shipments were up 19%. For bulk conveying, orders were up 8.8% and shipments were up 15.4%.

CEMA president Ned Thompson announced the results at the association’s 86th annual meeting in La Quinta, Calif., earlier this month.

The executives representing CEMA member companies who attended the annual meeting expressed continued optimism and forecasted shipments will increase 15% for 2019.

Founded in 1933, CEMA now has 139 member companies and tracks new orders and shipped sales volume in nine classes of unit handling equipment and four classes of bulk handling equipment. CEMA makes available to member and nonmember companies safety labels for all types of conveyor equipment as well as useful technical information, standards and manuals.

Highlights of what is available for purchase:
● Belt Conveyors for Bulk Materials 7th Edition - “The Belt Book”
● Bucket Elevator Book Best Practices in Design
● CEMA Application Guide for Unit Handling Conveyors 2nd Edition - “The Unit Book”.
These books are authoritative technical manuals for conveyor design worldwide. Some
publications are also available in Portuguese and Spanish.

Click here for more information.
[url=https://cemanet.org/]https://cemanet.org/[/url]

At the annual meeting CEMA also elected Michael Hoehn, president of Automatic Systems, Inc., to serve as president of CEMA.

Other officers elected at the Association’s Annual Meeting:
Vice President – Mike Nisenbaum, director business development, Gates Corporation, Denver, Colo.
Secretary – Noel Bell, vice president, conveyor divisions, Martin Sprocket & Gear, Arlington, Texas
Treasurer – Andrew Felter, president & CEO, Webster Industries, Tiffin, Ohio

Elected to the Board of Directors were:
Paul Ross, president, Douglas Manufacturing Co., Inc., Pell City, Ala.
Bill Mecke, president, KWS Manufacturing Company, Burleson, Texas
Greg Westphall, director of engineering, Flexco, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Dave Zaleski, director, Dematic, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Carryover members are:
Chris Maines, vice president, project engineering, Honeywell-Intelligrated, Mason, Ohio
Johnny Wheat, president, 4B Components Ltd., Morton, Ill.
Chris Glenn, vice president of operations, Hytrol Conveyor Co., Inc., Jonesboro, Ark.
George Huber III, president, Industrial Kinetics, Inc., Downers Grove, Ill.
Mike Stegmann, business development manager, Boston Gear, Charlotte, N.C.