After spending nearly all of 2022 in unchanged or even contractionary territory, the current conditions component improved dramatically just two months into 2023 as the February reading added 17 points to January’s score to reach 63.3. The share of participants reporting “unchanged” conditions remained the majority position in the latest iteration, but fully one-third of respondents indicated “better” conditions in February, which help push the current metric into the growth range for the first time since last April. The move toward electrification and infrastructure investments, as illustrated in one comment that described “strong continued demand in EV, utility, and data centers,” played a role as did strong orders activity and easing supply chain pressures.

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