Diagnosing the Medical Market

Guckes will offer attendees a breakdown of the market along its entire supply chain, from production to end-use consumption, by digging into data from medical device manufacturers, financial markets and macroeconomic data.

In the April issue of Plastics Technology, Guckes provided an overview of the medical market, reviewing 67 publicly traded firms in the medical-devices and medical-instruments and supply industries. From those, Gardner Intelligence evaluated fourth-quarter data from 2018, as well as on a 12/12 rate-of-change basis (comparing the last 12 months with the preceding 12 months).

So what did they find? Top-line revenue growth was more than double overall U.S. economic growth, and among the firms analyzed, average year-on-year fourth-quarter revenue growth was nearly 9%, and the median was 6%. This is more than double the expected rate of overall U.S. economic growth for that quarter of 2.4%. Said Guckes:

That current and projected revenue growth are both well above overall economic growth levels should give suppliers to the industry reason for hope. Retained cash generated in recent quarters may quickly be deployed in the future if business sentiment changes.

Get even more insights from Guckes, and the chance to ask him some questions, during the first-ever Medical Injection Molding Workshop taking place on the afternoon of June 12 during Amerimold (June 12-12; Rosemont, Ill.).

Guckes’ presentation, joins talks by Kevin Rottinghaus of Beaumont Technologies, addressing the importance of balanced flow; a discussion of faster process validation with Erik Sherburne of Advanced Molding Technologies; and a material selection for medical presentation by industry consultant, Len Czuba.

Guckes has performed economic analysis, modeling and forecasting work for nearly 20 years among a wide range of industries. He received his BA in political science and economics from Kenyon College and his MBA from The Ohio State University.