U.S. and Canadian manufacturers’ sales increased for the third consecutive month in March, with U.S. manufacturers posting an increase of 5.6 percent and Canadian manufacturers’ sales rising by 18.5 percent, according to sales data released by the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) in its Market Outlook Report. 
 
For U.S. manufacturers, sales comparisons between the first quarter of 2010 and 2009 still reflect sales declines. U.S. manufacturers’ year-to-date sales are down 3.4 percent compared to sales at this time last year. Canadian manufacturers’ year-to-year sales rose by 7.7 percent for the same period.

For the third month, U.S. manufacturers’ confidence maintained a neutral position of 5.0 on a scale of 1 (very pessimistic) to 10 (outstanding).  Canadian manufacturers’ maintained the position of 4.8. 
 
Month-to-month sales for product categories between February 2010 and March 2010 for Canadian manufacturers are reported below.
 
Canadian Manufacturer Percent Change in Product Sales
(January 2010 vs. February 2010)
 

Product	Percent Change
Positioning Systems/Linear Motion Products	-32.1%
Clutches & Brakes	-14.7%
Mounted Bearings	7.9%
Mechanical Drive Systems and Other PT Products	8.8%
Unmounted Bearings	13.1%
Gear Products	39.6%
Shaft Couplings	89.5%
Variable Speed Drives	103.3%

The Market Outlook Report is published monthly by the Power Transmission Distributors Association. The full report includes U.S. and Canadian manufacturer data for sales and order trends for mounted bearings, unmounted bearings, variable speed drives, positioning systems/linear motion products, gear products, clutches and brakes, shaft couplings and mechanical drive systems and other PT products. 
www.ptda.org/MOR
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