Distributor Forecast Growth Ahead in 2023 But Uncertainty Abounds

Economic headwinds like inflation and supply chain shortages temper expectations.

BY STEVE GUGLIELMO

Every year in the 1st Quarter Issue of Welding & Gases

Today, we reach out to all GAWDA members to try to get a sense of the economic landscape for the upcoming year. We speak not only to GAWDA distributors (below) and suppliers (page 68), but also to GAWDA’s Chief Economists at ITR Economics (page 85), and sister organizations American Welding Society (page 78) and the Compressed Gas Association (page 81). Taken together, we can paint a complete picture of how the industry will shake out in 2023. And this year, we see some very clear trends emerge. While there are near-unanimous calls for growth, the expectations are tempered by continuing trends like supply chain shortages, challenges finding skilled labor, residual inflation, and expectations of a potential recession in the second-half of the year.

Continuing this year, we have broken down the distributor forecast by region. This reflects the fact that prevailing industries in each region are different and problems facing distributors in the Northeast may be vastly different than those seen in Texas. Not every region is experiencing the same economic climate at the same time. As it was in 2022, GAWDA’s distributors are up across the board this year, with every region projecting growth, though with caveats and contingencies.

The following are responses from GAWDA distributors across North America about what they expect to see in 2023. Thank you to those who participated.