London — Optimism in the global polyurethane machinery manufacturing industry grew markedly between 2015 and 2016, according to results from the most recent Urethanes Technology International machinery survey.
The UTImcIndex in 2016 the index rose sharply from 3.8 in 2015 to 4.8 in 2016, the highest level for several years.
Although not as high as the peak in 2011, the industry is more optimistic than at any time since 2012.
The data was compiled from the Urethanes Technology International annual machinery survey.
The UTImcIndex is calculated by counting the number of firms in our survey that say they have specific plans for a course of action such as expansion. We take the sum of the firms which say they have specific plans and then divide that number by the total number of respondents in the survey.
That number is then multiplied by a factor to account for how positive the action is. Acquisition building new factories are the most positive and are multiplied by 10. Expansion is multiplied by seven; upgrading, three; consolidation is one and divestment is -10. All of these figures are then added together to produce the index.
You can expect to see more detail on the state of the polyurethane machinery manufacturing industry in our April May issue.
