Day two at FABTECH proved to be as positive as day one. More than 17,000 attendees passed through the doors and the general attitude reported to us by a substantial number of industry suppliers we interviewed was that these people were in a buying mood.

We were unable to detect any concerns or any impact with recession in the manufacturing community. Granted, suppliers are well aware that the ability to obtain financing for capital equipment purchases could become difficult, but most are choosing to treat that as a market effect beyond their control.

We were told by numerous system suppliers that they expect sales for the balance of this year to meet quota and most of these people were optimistic that a positive trend will continue at leat through the beginning of 2009.

One has to wonder, however, about the affect of this make-believe city. Optimism always reigns at the gambling tables and we have asked ourselves, more than once, has this transitioned into the halls of FABTECH? The attitude on the show floor is positive, with both buyers and suppliers, and we did not detect any concerns that this wasn't going to be 'business as usual' come next Monday morning.

Wed Oct 08 11:27:00 CDT 2008