As of February 2014, WSD’s industries activity index (IDX) was up 6.9% year-to-year for the short-lead-time capital goods index; up 5.7% year-to-year in the long-lead time capital goods index, and up 5.0% in the consumer goods index. The first two indices account for about 70% of the total weighting of the index. Overall, in February 2014, IDX was up 5.1% year-to-year, which compares to 6.7% in December 2013 and 3.6% for all of 2013.
Since 2007, the largest year-to-year decline for the index was 30.3% in May 2009, while the biggest year-to-year gain was 13.6% in April 2012.
These IDX figures provide support to the concept that, at least for the moment, the US is the country, and the US steel market is the market, whose economy and steel industry outlook appear to be the most sustainable.
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