About NFPA's Confidential Shipments Statistics (CSS) Program

As the cornerstone of NFPA's market information services, the CSS is the only monthly market program for fluid power products available to the industry.  This unique program allows your company to stay up-to-date on important industry trends in the U.S.  Most importantly, the CSS program allows you to compare your company's performance to those segments of the industry that are most relevant to your operations with.

• Trend graphs to track monthly production, import and export data for both shipments and orders,

• Detailed reports containing analysis on each product & market segments size and growth,

• Producer Price Indexes (PPI's) for all fluid power products measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

• Analysis of monthly and annual trends for fluid power market segments,

• Supplement reports that include monthly charts and analysis of five major fluid power customer markets and two leading indicators.

What is involved with being a CSS participant?

As a CSS participant, NFPA asks that you report both shipments and orders for all fluid power products produced by your company including exports and resales of imports (estimated monthly reporting time of 10-15 minutes a month).  Manufacturers of fluid power products and suppliers of parts and materials are eligible to participate. Great care is taken to maintain confidentiality of individual company data by having each participating company report directly to an independent market research firm.

What will I receive as a CSS participant?

Every month you will receive an e-mail containing several attachments, which include.

• A CSS report containing the above mentioned materials for a preliminary & final (revised) month,

• Two dollar reports, preliminary & final (revised) month, showing the aggregated dollars reported in each category you submit data too, which can be used for market share analysis.

You will also receive NFPA's Electronic Statistical Toolkit as a benefit of participation.  This user-friendly excel-based software package improves each user's economic view of his/her company as well as our industry by combining multiple NFPA market information services with the types of analytical tools commonly used today.  This quick point and click tool allows users to.

• Analyze trends in shipments & orders for fluid power products and customer markets,

• Use correlation analysis to determine proper lead-lag relationships,

• Determine market share at industry & product levels,

• Forecast company product lines and display a five-year future trend line,

• Create instant graphs & tables to illustrate findings, which can be transferred directly into reports.

• Include your own data sources to take a special look at your market.

How do I get started? 

To get started in the CSS program, click here to access NFPA's on-line CSS enrollment form or contact Eric Armstrong, NFPA's Economic and Statistical Services Manager, at 414-778-3372 or e-mail at earmstrong@nfpa.com and inquire about having your company benefit from this valuable member service.