In an age of tightening defense budgets, suppliers are finding that replacement parts used to maintain existing equipment are good business. Even though purchase volume is down over the past few years, vendors are finding comfort in the consistent business of replacement parts. BidLink will periodically examine a particular industry segment in search for opportunities for our clients. Today we examine one such industry segment, FSC 5330: Packing and Gasket Materials.
Over the past 10 years the Department of Defense, has purchased over 61,000 unique NSN’s from more than 3,000 different companies in the gasket industry according to data obtained by BidLink.net, a provider of defense industry information.
National Stock Numbers (NSN) are used by the government to categorize the items that they buy. Items are classified in segments, indicated by the Federal Supply Class (FSC).
| 5330 | -01- | 298-7343 |
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Federal Supply Class |
Country Code |
Unique Number
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The segment -FSC 5330 – titled: “Packing and Gasket Materials” is defined as Seals, gaskets and packing are made from materials specifically designed and constructed to resist deterioration from the action of heat, gas, chemicals, liquids, and used to fill a cavity and create a tight seal.
They include items such as General Purpose Oil Grease, Air, Liquid, Gas, and chemical Seals; Oakum; Prefabricated Gaskets and Seals designed for a single specific application. Note-This FSC includes only seals and gaskets designed for standard use.
SALES VOLUME
Although belt tightening has reduced the volume of purchases for items under FSC 5330 over the past three years, annual volume is still close to $100 million.
In this segment, sixteen percent (16%) of these suppliers are women owned. Fifty Seven percent (57%) of these companies are listed as manufacturers where as Forty percent (40%) are categorized as non-manufacturers including distributors and brokers. The last 3% categorized as NATO (or foreign companies). Eighty Seven percent (87%) of these 3,000+ companies are classified as small business, where the company has employees ranging from 0 to 500 people.
Quantities sold to the Government range from a few pieces to over 300,000 pieces in a single purchase order. This specific NSN 5330-01-298-7343 was sold for $0.18 each a quantity of 300,000 for a single contract totaling $54,000 dollars- a nice contract and should keep the stamping machines running for awhile. Not all orders are this large in volume but prices range all the way up in the thousands of dollars each.
We are finding that a large amount of money spent by the defense department is for simple items that one might overlook, like batteries, gaskets, cookies and sunglasses. Companies who can make these types of products will find the defense department as a huge potential customer for American made goods where private sector sales might be faltering.
BidLink.net provides vital information to defense contractors by mining its enormous and comprehensive database. This data includes millions of defense contracts, procurement history, part numbers and vendor information. This unique combination of resources allows BidLink to monitor and extract important information for the defense contracting industry. BidLink.net, based in Washington, D.C., provides bid consolidation, searching and notification services, as well as part number (NSN) lookup services to many military activities and thousands of private companies around the world.
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