As evidence, AMT noted that several economic indicators remain strong, including durable goods orders, consumer confidence indices, and the ISM Purchasing Managers’ Index, all of which suggest continued growth in manufacturing at slower rates.
USMTO’s October regional reports reflected the overall trend of month-to-month decline but year-to-date expansion. In the Northeast region, total new orders for manufacturing technology decline 26.6% from September to $86.36 million, though that figure is 21.1% higher than the comparable figure for October 2017. The regional 10-month total for metal-cutting equipment orders is $792.5 million, up 29.2% over last year’s figure.
In the Southeast region, new orders for metal-cutting equipment totaled $75.8 million for October, 39.0% lower than in September but 62.4% higher than in October 2017. The YTD result is $559.17 million, a 35.3% rise over last year.
In the North Central-East region, total orders for October fell 14.3% from September to $103.17 million, and that also represented a decline of 16.9% from October 2017. The regional year-to-date new order total is up 11.5% over 2017, at $1.02 billion.
The North Central-West region had total manufacturing technology orders of $79.8 million during October, down 25.2% from September and down 10.3% from October 2017. Even so, the regional YTD result is up 36.2% versus January-October 2017.
The South Central region reported October new orders for metal-cutting equipment worth $34.33 million, a decline of 22.3% from September and of 21.3% from October 2017. Again, however, the year-to-date total for new orders in the region at up 26.2%.
Finally, in the West region, October new orders for metal-cutting equipment fell 8.3% from the previous month to $82.26 million, which is 9.4% higher than last year’s comparable figure. The region’s year-to-date total for all manufacturing technology is up to $753.8 million, a rise of 17.5% YTD.
