U.S. machine shops and other manufacturers consumed a total of $158 million in cutting tool products during January, a solid rebound from a weak December report, rising 14.5% for the month. The total also represents a 10.6% decline from the January 2013 total.
The monthly Cutting Tool Market Report is compiled jointly and issued by the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute and AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology. The data is based on actual totals reported by the companies participating in the CMTR program.
“As the CTMR enters the second calendar year of publication, the last four months have been marked by volatility,” stated Brad Lawton, chairman of AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group.
The reports’ authors maintain that analysis of cutting tool consumption is an indicator of U.S. manufacturing activity, because it is a true measure of actual production levels. For comparison, the monthly U.S. Machine Tool Orders report, also issued by AMT, is an indicator of longer-term manufacturing activity and/or confidence. Indeed, while the current CTMR indicates robust manufacturing activity, the USMTO for the same period declined over the previous month’s result.
“While it is difficult to draw a clear conclusion from just a few years of data, the pattern so far in this series suggests we might see smaller swings each month later in 2014,” Lawton added.
