“Orders of a half-billion dollars in August were a major surprise, particularly as it occurred in the weeks immediately preceding the most successful IMTS ever produced,” stated AMT president Douglas K. Woods. “The current acceleration in manufacturing is illustrated in the continued growth of backlog for durable goods.”
“The only way to address that trend is to put more people and equipment in place,” Woods continued. “Therefore, there was no typical ‘summer pause’ usually associated with August, as manufacturers have a need to increase capacity now.”
AMT noted that trade issues and supply chain delays may yet affect the equipment market in the final months of 2018, explaining that the manufacturing sector relies on imports of technology as well as on exports of finished parts for its continued success.
The USMTO report includes regional data on new orders as well as nationwide results, and the August results appear to have been widely distributed. Strong results were evident in the regions where automotive and general industrial manufacturing (Southeast, +43.4% month/month; North Central-East, +5.0%; North Central-West +101.4%) as well as in areas where oil-and-gas and energy markets (South Central, +60.4% YTD; West 29.4%YTD) drive demand.
Only the Northeast region delivered negative results for August, with total manufacturing technology orders declining 20.5% from July.
