Although hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has engendered the possibility of shale-produced oil and natural gas, vaulting the United States into the world’s No. 1 spot in fossil-fuel production (oil, coal, natural gas), prestigious financial weekly Barron’s now estimates up to $1 trillion in capital-goods spending will be generated to make this happen by 2025.

AD recently reported record sales in 2013 of $28 billion.  

While the 2014 economic year is in its infancy, there are a number of positive factors indicating the current year will be the strongest comeback year since the end of the recent Great Recession and have the makeup of strong diversified economic elements.

In last month’s issue, a panel of leading PHCP executives made its feelings known on a variety of issues related to government regulation and how the current political climate is affecting the industry. In the second of this two-part series, the group delves into issues related to the everyday workings of its companies, including staff growth, e-commerce and attracting young talent into the industry.

Now more than ever, legislative and regulatory decisions play a major role in the way PHCP and PVF distributors conduct business. A blue-chip panel of distributors had plenty to say about that and many other hot-button topics during an exclusive roundtable interview conducted by Supply House Times and the American Supply Association during NetworkASA 2013 at the Renaissance Marriott DC Downtown Hotel in Washington.

It’s like the sign in certain bars announcing, “Free Beer Tomorrow.” Almost as whimsically, economists keep predicting a strong recovery in the last half of the coming year.

More and more, industry buzz indicates American manufacturing is trending in a positive direction. Pardon the cliché, but where’s the beef? The “Made in America” label is significant for manufacturers, distributors, designers and end-users. Products made in America almost always guarantee quality workmanship backed by manufacturers operating on U.S. soil.

This column often delves deep into all aspects of the United States’ energy revolution as it carves a path to practical independence in the next decade. But we seem to have been relatively isolated by other analysts who ignore the massive upward climb in refined derivative exports, which surged past 3 million barrels a day in 2013. That output is expected to reach an incredible 5 million barrels a day by the end of the decade.

MRC Global’s 2013 third-quarter results show the company’s sales of $1.31 billion in that timeframe decreased 9.5% from $1.45 billion in the third quarter of 2012 due, in part, to a planned reduction in the company’s lower margin oil country tubular goods business. OCTG represented 8.0% of sales in the third quarter of 2013 compared to 12.8% of sales in the third quarter of 2012.

In the wake of the arm wrestling between President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on one hand and House Speaker John Boehner and the GOP on the other, this exaggerated government “shutdown crisis” will have little, if any influence on the 2014 U.S. economy.