Page 23 - Metalorming Magazine January/February 2023

first funding announcements for the Transmission Facilita- tion Program and more than $3 billion in grant funding for the Grid Resiliency and Inno- vative Partnerships pro- grams—with plans to begin issuing awards in 2023.
Energy storage also has
taken center stage, as IIJA earmarks significant funds
for further investment in
energy storage, including
grants from the DoE Office
of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for pro-
cessing, manufacturing and recycling of battery materials,
as well as grants and coop-
erative agreements from the
DoE Office of Clean Energy Demonstration to carry out energy- storage demonstration projects.
“We’re sitting at 14- to 15-yr. highs in the Dodge Momentum Index,” says Richard Branch, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics, “so it should provide some semblance of confidence and reassurance that developers and owners are continuing to put projects into the queue despite the fact that we’re concerned about what might happen when interest rates keep rising and the economy slows down in 2023.”
The 2023 construction outlook by sector, per Dodge:
• Residential: Single-family housing starts down 6 percent in 2023. The mar- ket’s trough is predicted to hit in late Q1/early Q2 2023 as mortgage rates stabilize. Meanwhile, multi-family housing starts—coming off of their best year since 1986—are predicted to drop 9 percent in 2023.
• Nonresidential: Commercial starts are expected to drop 3 percent, Branch predicts, noting two poor performers: warehouses and office construction. Says Branch: “2022 was the peak year for warehouse construction. Bright spots for the segment include retail and hotels.
• Manufacturing plants: While starts will fall by 43 percent, this comes on the heels of 196-percent growth in 2022
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The off-highway industry continues to transition from diesel internal combustion engines to electric and alternative fuels (biofuels and hydrogen), and to develop new automation technology to aid in improving productivity. Notable: this newly introduced John Deere 8R fully autonomous tractor driv- en by artificial intelligence (computer vision and machine learning) rather than a farmer behind the wheel.
as more companies opted to shift pro- duction back to the United States. “You need to go back to the early ’90s to see the kinds of square footage that we expect to break ground in 2023,” Branch says.
• Institutional sector: Government funding will provide stability for gov- ernment, education and healthcare projects, especially in regions with strong demographic growth such as the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, Nevada and New Mexico.
• Environmental: Public-works starts are set to rise with work on dams/reser- voirs up 15 percent; water-supply sys- tems up 12 percent; and sewage and waste up 17 percent.
• Lastly, looking just at roads and bridges, only 19 percent of funds from the latest infrastructure package have been allocated so far. “There’s a lot of money still on the table wait- ing to be spent,” says Branch. “We continue to think that 2023 and 2024 are the best years for infrastructure construction.”
As for the off-highway market, a state-of-the-industry report from OEM Off-Highway echoes the common sen- timent around manufacturing when it comes to identifying challenges, that is: Supply-chain challenges require manufacturers to invest in engineering
and manufacturing experts to help nav- igate a complicated climate and local- ize supply chains to ensure the supply is close to customers.
The industry also continues to tran- sition from diesel internal combustion engines to electric and alternative fuels (biofuels and hydrogen). And “most off-highway OEMs are adopting or have adopted the global environment, social and governance (ESG) goals,” the report notes.
Overall, the global market for offroad vehicles is predicted to grow by an 8-percent CAGR through 2032 (Global Market Insights). In particular, the recreational off-highway vehicles market is expected to grow at a 13.2- percent CAGR through 2032 (Fact.MR).
Among new technology entering the sector, an OEM Off-Highway article reviewing the 2022 Consumer Elec- tronic Show highlights the new John Deere fully autonomous tractor, equipped with six pairs of stereo cam- eras to create 360-deg. obstacle detec- tion; and the launch of the Bobcat T7X all-electric compact track loader equipped with an intelligent power- management system programmed to sense when loads are increasing, and then to automatically back off power when not needed to conserve energy and runtime.