Finishing Activity Ended March Down 1 Point vs. February

The Gardner Business Index (GBI): Finishing returned to essentially flat in March, proving expanded activity in February to be short-lived.

• Components recorded the ‘right’ activity (3-month moving averages) in March, with expanding components expanding faster and contracting components contracting slower. 
• Employment and production activity were neck-and-neck, growing, with new orders still contracting, but slower, such that it is knocking on the door of expansion. 
• New orders will have to pick up the pace before backlog really expands again (last time was August 2022.) Backlog continued to contract in March, more slowly, but landing still distant from expansion.
• Export activity contracted a little more slowly again in March.
• Supplier deliveries continued to lengthen at a slower rate in March which suggests the worst of the supply chain woes is behind us. Should the trend continue, supplier deliveries will shorten, a good thing for shops receiving materials, but a sign of softening volume overall.
• That the overall Gardner Business Index: Finishing was down while most components (reported as 3-month moving averages) expanded faster or contracted slower in March makes for heightened anticipation of how the combinations will shake out, and potentially synch, come April. 
  
  
  The Gardner Business Index (GBI): Finishing ​​​​​​​