The regular quarterly survey of industrial lasers and optics vendors undertaken by Longbow Research found that the mood remained modestly positive, even though the number of US vendors reporting an actual year-on-year increase in demand fell from 63 percent in Q2 2012 to 50 percent in Q3.

The number of respondents experiencing a fall in demand rose from 11 percent to 19 percent for the same periods.

Summarizing the results of the survey, Mark Douglass of Longbow indicated that demand within the automotive sector remained strong for all varieties of laser system, from low- to high-power. Continued investment in agricultural equipment was likewise supporting that sector, although flatter growth in 2013 seems likely.

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