A few weeks ago at the FABTECH trade show in Chicago, I ran into (almost literally, in fact) Nathan McMasters, president of Diversified Metal Products, an Idaho Falls, Idaho-based contract fabricator specializing in products for the energy, transportation, and nuclear fields. Our five-minute chat told a lot about what’s going on with this confounded economy that, for many, refuses to break out of its funk. McMasters said company sales were up 20 percent from 2010, and after talking with a few dozen shop managers at the show, I discovered that wasn’t an unusual number.
