Study Predicts Record High for Automotive Tooling Expenditures, Followed by Dip
January 1, 2018Comments
Harbour Results, Inc. (HRI), Southfield, MI, a consulting firm for the manufacturing industry, predicts 2018 automotive-vendor tooling spend to reach a record high of $11 billion. The prediction is a result of the firm’s in-depth study on the current state of the automotive-vendor tooling industry, which reports that the key factor driving increased tooling spend is the 177 North American vehicle launches predicted between 2018 and 2020. Sixty-six percent of these launches will be sport utility vehicles and truck platforms, which require more tooling to manufacture than car platforms.
“In 2017, we estimated tooling spend to be approximately $9 billion, which has resulted in high capacity utilization among tool shops—88 percent for die shops and 81 percent for mold shops,” says Laurie Harbour, HRI president and CEO. “This created a new tooling model of outsourcing. In fact, $1 billion to $1.5 billion in tooling was outsourced in 2017 to help manage the growing demand. We can only expect this trend to grow in 2018.”
Yet, what goes up often comes down: HRI projects a drop of 40 percent in tooling spend from the high of $11 billion in 2018 to approximately $6.7 billion in 2020.
See also: Harbour Results Inc.
Technologies: Tooling
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