The manufacturing industry has suffered during the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic. A new report from the Institute for Supply Management expects the industry won’t return to pre-recession levels until 2022.
Ohio manufacturers have been shifting gears to find ways to help people on the front lines of the pandemic. The Ohio Manufacturing Alliance plans to produce 750,000 isolation gowns among other personal protective equipment, such as face shields and swabs.
Ethan Karp, president and CEO of manufacturing advocacy group MAGNET, thinks some Ohio companies will continue to produce PPE after this initiative.
“Certainly the market does not need 200 people making face shields. But thinking of having one or two or three companies who really get good at it, get all that high end equipment, that’s exciting. And I think that will happen, because people have seen that they can sell into these new markets.”
Karp says the isolation gowns should be finished in the next three weeks, with announcements of more PPE production coming later this week.
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