Industrial Heating magazine's monthly Economic Indicators showed moderate gains made for the month of October. Both the Request for Quotations Index and the Backlog index showed positive growth. The Orders index showed that orders remained steady. The General Health of the Thermal Processing Industry was still negative, although less so than in September. October index numbers, released today, reflect the changes experienced by responding companies from August 2002 to September 2002. Request for Proposal Index increased from 46.9 in September to 53.2 in October. Number of Orders Index rose from 47.6 in September to 49.9 in October. Size of Backlog Index went up from 47.1 in September to 52.4 in October. General Health of the Thermal Processing Industry Index showed a modest gain from 46.3 in September to 48.2 in October. Roughly 375 industry suppliers are surveyed the first full week of each month. If you are an industry supplier and would like to participate in this monthly survey, please contact Industrial Heating Publisher Doug Glenn at 412-531-3370 or by e-mail doug@industrialheating.com. These results are also published monthly on the editorial page of Industrial Heating.