The Utah Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Initiative (UAMMI) recently released a report of the COVID-19 Economic Effects on Utah’s Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Industry. The report is a summary of survey responses from over 140 companies recently contacted and interviewed by UAMMI team members. The purpose of the survey was to assess the economic effects and challenges being faced within this important Utah industry cluster and offer support to the individual companies as well as guidance to recovery policy makers.
“During this unprecedented time, we felt that it was important to contact Utah’s advanced materials manufacturing companies and hear first-hand how they are doing,” said Dr. Tulinda Larsen, UAMMI Executive Director. “It gave us great insight and the companies appreciated the personal outreach during this Urgent Phase of the COVID-19 crisis. We plan to continue outreach as the Utah economy enters both the Stabilization and Recovery phases.”
Based on the results from UAMMI’s outreach to 144 Utah advanced materials and manufacturing companies, seven common themes were discovered:
- Companies with large Government Defense Contracts have been mostly protected. For those companies production is stable and in some cases is increasing. However all reported that they had to make workplace adjustments
- Aerospace suppliers are continuing production however their future is uncertain
- Recreational manufacturers had to pivot
- Companies making PPEs cannot keep up with demand
- Accounts receivables impacted cash flow
- Projects have been delayed for nearly all companies
- Receiving supplies, except for PPEs, has not typically been a problem, but there have been delivery delays
Questions for customer demand were also asked with responses being nearly split between seeing no reduction in customer demand (47%) and seeing reduced customer demand (44%). Nearly 7% reported actually seeing an increases in customer demand.
In regards to production, more than half of the respondents have not made any production adjustments in response to demand changes. However, of the companies that are facing reduced customer demand, they have been forced to reduce production, lay off workers and, in some cases, even shut down. For most companies, customer payments have also slowed and are impacting cash flow.
Manufacturing and operating supplies have also been effected. One-third of the companies reported facing reductions in supplies and nearly all reported reductions in cleaning supplies and other operational necessities. Many are also facing delays in deliveries and other uncertainties in the supply chain.
To see more, please download the full Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Company COVID-19 Outreach Results Report here: FINAL REPORT
###
About UAMMI
Founded in 2014, the Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative (UAMMI) brings together public, private, community, industry and education partners to assure growth and sustainability of Utah’s advanced materials and manufacturing industry and maintain Utah’s leadership in this key global industry. www.UAMMI.org