THE NUMBERS

As of this writing, October U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $152.68 million, according to AMT ? The Association For Manufacturing Technology (McLean VA), and AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors? Association (Rockville, MD).

This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 2.8 percent from September and down 49.0 percent from the total of $299.28 million reported for October 2008.

With a year-to-date total of $1,372.31 million, 2009 is down 65.9 percent compared with 2008. These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.

?In November, government data confirmed that the manufacturing recession hit bottom during the summer. However, manufacturing technology bookings typically pick up two-three quarters following the overall manufacturing sector,? said Douglas K. Woods, AMT President. ?October?s slight decrease from September?s booking is typical of past years and favorably off less than in previous years. Major indicators are still pointing to a turnaround in business, which is welcome news no matter how slow it is expected to grow next year.?

The United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.

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

Reviews of all of the industrial reports on shipments, imports and exports of metalworking machinery over the past 30 months are listed as follows:
Chart 1. Net New Machine Tool Orders for U.S. Consumption. Issued by AMT ? The Association For Manufacturing Technology in December 2009.
Chart 2. Value of Shipments, Including Exports of Metalworking Machinery by Product Class. Issued as a combination of Current Industrial Reports by the U.S. Census Bureau, MQ333W092 (Second Quarter 2009), MQ333W091 (First Quarter 2009), and MQ333W085 (Shipments in 2008-2007).
Chart 3. Current Business Outlook Survey. Issued by Fabricating & Metalworking from an audience survey of 500 executives conducted during Fourth Quarter 2009.