Manufacturers and machine shops purchased $371.41 million worth of machine tools and related products (“manufacturing technology”) during January, according to the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) report from the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA) and AMT - The Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total indicates a decline of 16.3% from De-cember’s $446.76 million, but a rise of 188.3% over the $128.82 million registered for January 2010.
The USMTC is a monthly report prepared by the two associations, based on actual sales totals sub-mitted by participating companies that participate in the program. It includes the data on production and distribution of manufacturing technology, on a national and regional basis.
“Despite the slight decline in orders from December, the January USMTC report confirms that U.S. manufacturers are reinvesting vigorously to improve productivity,” stated AMTDA president Peter Borden. “As equipment deliveries grow longer and commodity prices increase, factories may continue to make these investments before inflation and other factors raise prices further.”
The regional consumption totals indicate relative strength in the Southern states. Southern regional manufacturing technology consumption rose 18.7% from $45.62 million in December to $53.90 million in January, up 18.7% when compared with December’s $45.42 million and up 96.5% when compared with $28.51 million in January 2010.
In the Northeast region, sales of manufacturing technology and related equipment fell 25.6% from $66.13 million to $49.21 million, but remained 92.4% higher than the January 2010 total of $25.88 million.
The Midwest region registered a consumption decline of 24.5%, from 164.32 million in December to $124.07 million in January. As in the other regions, however, the Midwest registered a 224.6% increase over the January 2010 total of $37.41 million.
In the Central states, January manufacturing technology consumption fell 13.1% to $99.66 million, from $114.68 million in December. It was a 283.3% rise over the January 2010 total of $27.10 million.
In the West manufacturing technology consumption dropped 16.4% in January to $44.58 million, $53.30 million in December, though the figure represents a 284.1% improvement over January 2010’s to-tal, $12.06 million.
