SIC 3553 Woodworking Machinery

SIC 3553

This category includes establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing machinery for sawmills, for making particleboard and similar products, and for otherwise working or producing wood products. Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing hand tools are classified in cutlery, hand tools, and general hardware manufacturing industries, while those engaged in manufacturing portable power-driven hand tools are classified in SIC 3546: Power-Driven Hand Tools.

NAICS CODE(S)

333210

Sawmill and Woodworking Machinery Manufacturing

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 288 establishments operated in this category for part or all of 2004. Industry-wide employment totaled approximately 6,986 workers receiving a payroll of more than $302 million. Companies in this industry tended to be small in size with about 67 percent employing less than 20 workers. The Annual Survey of Manufactures reported that overall shipments for the industry were valued at more than $964 million in 2005. Additionally, for the industry a total of 4,022 employees worked in production in 2004, putting in more than 8 million hours to earn wages of nearly $139 million.

Accu Systems Inc. of Salt Lake City, Utah, was the 2005 industry leader with operating revenue of more than $1.1 billion. In distant second place was Duluth, Georgia-based SCM Group USA Inc., with $420 million in sales and 3,000 employees. Rounding out the top three was Coe Manufacturing Company Inc. of Painesville, Ohio, with $236 million in sales and 100 employees.

One dilemma the industry faced in the late 1990s was a shortage of qualified and trained workers. Technical schools were not graduating students knowledgeable in woodworking, threatening the future of the industry. To correct this, the Woodworking Machinery Industry Association (WMIA) sent an interactive CD-ROM recruitment kit to high school students and guidance counselors, educating them about the benefits of working in this industry.

In the 1980s, the woodworking machinery industry was affected by a slowdown in the housing industry and a general U.S. economic recession. In the early 1990s, the industry was further affected by cutting limits imposed on the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. However, in 1992 George Delaney, then president of the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America (WMMA), which represented more than 100 companies in the industry, said the number one issue facing the...

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