Slowdown in Printing Activity Has Paused, say NAPL Stats

Sales fell 0.9% in May for the NAPL Printing Business Panel, the third decline in four months. Year to date (January 1 through May 31), the panel's sales were up 0.5%. During the same period last year, sales were up 8.1%. The good news is that several key NAPL business indicators suggest that the slowdown in print activity has finally paused.

NAPL's most comprehensive measure of printing activity, the NAPL Printing Business Index, rose to 44.0 in June. That is far below last August's 58.1 peak, but nearly two points above April's low and the highest reading since January. In June, 20.4% of the printers NAPL surveys reported that business was picking up, an improvement over May's record-low 18.0%, while 12.5% reported work-on-hand (work-in-progress plus order backlog) was increasing, up from just 7.5% a month earlier. None of these indicators suggest an upturn has started, but that all three have stabilized after falling freely for seven months is encouraging.