The number for April was 54.7%, which may not sound too much since we have seen numbers much above that in recent years. However, this is a sharp reversal of a downward trend over the last twelve months. Remember that a level of 50 indicates a general level of expansion in the manufacturing sector, so we have been pretty much stagnant since November. The portion of our business tied in to the general industrial cycle has got progressively weaker in the last year, so this is welcome. Usually we see our revenue tracking the PMI with a six to eight week lag.
This result was a surprise because people had expected the housing sector to be a continued drag downwards, so either the housing market has turned round (unlikely) or other segments of the manufacturing economy are much stronger than they appear
