Manufacturing Technology Orders Dip in November

The November U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $378.06 million according to AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology (McLean, VA). This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTO program, was down 15.5 percent from October and down 14.5 percent when compared with the total of $442.01 million reported for November 2013.

Despite the monthly dip, with a year-to-date total of $4,556.6 million, 2014 is up 2.6 percent compared with 2013. These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTO program.

“Despite a downward monthly trend in manufacturing technology orders, we remain bullish on the U.S. industry market overall, with robust factory production and strong performance in the automotive sector,” said Douglas K. Woods, the AMT president. “Many manufacturers took a ‘pause’ in November to assess the challenges from the previous few months, such as contraction in China, Europe and Russia, less activity from the oil and gas industry due to the dramatic drop in prices and perhaps a little bit of the ‘IMTS Effect’ pulling some sales forward. Overall, however, we anticipate 2015 to be another year of positive growth, with manufacturing leading the U.S. economy.”

The United States Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report, compiled by the trade association representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, provides regional and national U.S. orders data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.

Analysis of manufacturing technology orders provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity.

AMT’s intent is to always provide timely and accurate economic reports to our community. For this reason, we are making an adjustment to the USMTO report. Due to a change in survey participants the year over year comparison number for Metal Forming and Fabricating is not an accurate reflection of the data.

We have adjusted the data for the past 12 months to take this change into consideration. The new chart reflects a consistent year over year comparison of the data at the current participation level. U.S. manufacturing technology orders are also reported on a regional basis for six geographic breakdowns of the United States:

Southeast Region
November manufacturing technology orders in the Southeast Region totaled $48.66 million, up 37.7 percent when compared with October’s $35.35 million. At $439.88 million, 2014 year-to-date orders were 8.1 percent more than the comparable figure for 2013.

North Central-East Region
North Central-East Region manufacturing technology orders in November stood at $94.07 million, down 20.7 percent from October’s $118.68 million and down 24.6 percent when compared with the $124.72 million total for November 2013. The 2014 year-to-date total of $1,197.81 million was 4.3 percent higher than the 2013 total at the same time.

North Central-West Region
At $68.29 million, North Central-West Region manufacturing technology orders in November were off 27.1 percent from October’s $93.66 million. The 2014 year-to-date total of $802.81 million was 2.5 percent less than the comparable figure for 2013.

South Central
At $63.20 million, November manufacturing technology orders in the South Central Region were off 3.4 percent when compared with last November’s $65.42 million. At $714.15 million, 2014 year-to-date orders were running 5.9 percent ahead of 2013 at the same time.

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