2013 was a good year and that is particularly encouraging since 2012 was also very good. Looking forward to 2014, I am optimistic that training will continue to thrive while capital equipment sales may be slow. Fortunately CTI has three distinct business units: capital equipment for SMT assembly, production supplies for electronics assembly and training (mostly IPC certifications). Rarely do all three thrive in the same year.
Training tends to be a leading indicator for the equipment and production supplies. When customers are confident in the near term prospects, they tend to invest in training because they know they will be ramping up and need to be as efficient as possible. Build it, ship it and bill it as efficiently as possible!
CTI's training business is booming right now so I'm confident that training and production supply consumption will be very strong in 2014. However, I expect the capital equipment to be slow mainly because the IRS section 179 accelerated depreciation is set to expire in 2014. The loss of this tax deduction will definitely hurt small business, which is the primary customer base in the Carolinas.
