Three out of five manufacturers in metropolitan New York said they were shut down or severely crippled for at least five full days in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
Another one in four downstate plants said the superstorm knocked out their operations for one to four days, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found in a June survey.
Closings caused by the October 2012 storm were reported by manufacturers throughout New York City and Long island and in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties. Virtually no companies based in upstate New York reported that their operations were severely affected.
Damaged downstate firms on average said their businesses did not return to “normal levels” for nearly 2 1/2 weeks after the storm.
Nearly 90 percent of upstate firms said their level of business never fell after Sandy. About 5 percent of upstate plants said it took one to two weeks for business to return to normal, while another 5 percent reported a longer recovery period of at least three weeks.
More than one-third of manufacturers surveyed in the metropolitan region said their overall revenues during the last seven months were adversely affected by the superstorm. For affected companies, the average revenue shortfall was estimated to be the equivalent of about seven days”™ worth of business.
The storm”™s physical damage to plants was relatively minor within the disaster area. Of the approximately one-third of downstate businesses reporting physical damage from the storm, the median damage estimate was $35,000, Federal Reserve officials said.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York”™s monthly Empire State Manufacturing Survey found that general business conditions improved modestly for manufacturers in June despite declines in indexes for new orders and shipments and a rise in unfilled orders. Manufacturers”™ prices paid for goods held steady while the index of prices received rose, indicating increases in selling prices had picked up.
The survey found worsened labor market conditions this month, with reduced average hourly work weeks and flat employment levels, as optimism about future conditions in the industry “was weakening further,” according to federal analysts.
