U.S. manufacturers purchased $212.8 million worth of cutting tools during April, 2.7% more than during March but -2.8% less than the total for April 2024. “Tariff negotiations change every week without clear direction, stagnating key market segments for our products,” commented Steve Boyer, president of the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute.
Cutting tool purchases are tracked as an indicator of overall manufacturing activity in the monthly Cutting Tool Market Report, because those products support a wide selection of industrial operations in automotive, aerospace, energy, and numerous other sectors.
The CTMR is a joint presentation of USCTI and AMT - the Assn. of Manufacturing Technology.
For the current year to-date, cutting tool purchases have totaled $818.3 million, which is -5.1% less than the total for January-April 2024.
“Industries like aerospace and automotive, which are heavy users of our products, have been lagging due to uncertainty regarding raw materials, inventories, and acquisition costs of components for assembly,” Boyer continued. “The uncertainties have led to declines in year-over- year orders and delayed what most of us expected would be a considerable uptick for the first half of this year.”
“2025 did not get off to the strong start we experienced in 2024. Recent forecasts have pushed growth out to the third quarter,” offered Steve Stokey, executive vice president and owner of Allied Machine and Engineering. “With clarity on tariffs beginning to take shape and the expectation that Congress and the president will pass the Big Beautiful Bill, businesses will have a clearer picture of the playing field for the second half of 2025.
“If the forecasters are right, the stars should align, and the numbers will turn upward in the second half of the year,” Stokey added.
“Gaining traction in the second half of 2025 will be significantly impacted by the speed at which clarity is gained, and manufacturing can be ramped up once that’s achieved,” according to Boyer.
