In his State of the Union address in January 2016, President Barack Obama celebrated a strong manufacturing sector. Manufacturing has “created nearly 900,000 new jobs in the past six years,” he said. That’s good news for the over 12.32 million manufacturing workers in the United States who currently account for about 9 percent of the American workforce.
“Manufacturing is a thriving, exciting industry,” said Precision Metalforming Association President Bill Gaskin. “But it can also be a challenging industry. Manufacturers face significant hurdles from a dwindling workforce to a steady stream of expensive government regulations. Through interaction and collaboration, our members find their voice—and their power—to help propel American manufacturing forward to a bright future.”
For more than 70 years, the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) has been bringing together professionals in metal stamping, fabricating, spinning, and forming companies to improve professional development, productivity, and profitability. Offering networking, research, and advocacy, PMA helps its nearly 900 member companies achieve superior competitiveness.
PMA started in 1913 in Cleveland when a small number of stampers formed The Pressed Metal Association. In the following decades, the organization changed shape, direction, and names before becoming the Precision Metalforming Association in 1987. Today, PMA is one of the foremost representatives of manufacturing and metalforming in North America.
Facing Challenges
According to a recent industry survey, on average, PMA members spent $750,000 on equipment in 2015 and purchased $830,000 worth of equipment in 2014. While many American manufacturers—and certainly many PMA members—are small businesses, these companies spend big on machines. And technology investments often take months to finance and place into service.
Many manufacturers depend on tax incentives to afford the technology and equipment they need to stay competitive. Data shows that in 2015, 92 percent of PMA member companies used Section 179, another 91 percent benefited from Bonus Depreciation, and 55 percent claimed the R&D Tax Credit.
In recent years, American manufacturers were faced with a significant quandary. Partisan gridlock and general stagnation in Washington led Congress to allow these important business investment tax provisions to expire year after year. These expirations created uncertainty for business owners and forced them to make purchase and implementation decisions in impossibly small windows.
But in December of 2015 manufacturers, led in part by PMA advocacy efforts with Members of Congress in Washington, scored a major legislative victory. President Obama signed into law measures making permanent the R&D Tax Credit and Section 179 Equipment Expensing and extending Bonus Depreciation through 2019.
About PMA
The Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) is the full-service trade association representing the $137-billion metalforming industry of North America—the industry that creates precision metal products using stamping, fabricating, spinning, slide forming and roll forming technologies, and other value-added processes. Its nearly 900 member companies also include suppliers of equipment, materials and services to the industry. PMA leads innovative member companies toward superior competitiveness and profitability through advocacy, networking, statistics, the PMA Educational Foundation, FABTECH and METALFORM Mexico tradeshows, and MetalForming, Fabricating Product News and 3D Metal Printing magazines.
Precision Metalforming Association
6363 Oak Tree Blvd.
Independence, OH 44131
Phone – 216-901-8800
Website – www.pma.org