New orders for CNC machine tools and related technology made a 32.6% leap from February to March, up to $515.8 million according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders report. That result represents 33.8% rise over the March 2024 USMTO summary, and it raises the year-to-date total for manufacturing orders to $1.255 billion, or 12.4% higher than the January-March total for last year.
“The first quarter of 2025 showed strong signs that demand for manufacturing technology was beginning to recover after two years of mild decline,” according to AMT - the Assn. of Manufacturing Technology, which compiles the monthly report.
The monthly report summarizes capital equipment purchases in order value and machine units, nationwide and in six regions. It serves as an indicator of future manufacturing activity because it quantifies machining operations’ investments in preparation for new production programs.
Regionally, the highest level of new orders for metal cutting equipment was recorded in the North Central-East region (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana), which nearly doubled (+49.1%) from February to $109.25 million.) The other five regions also posted solid increases in new orders for metal-cutting machines, though some (Southeast, -4.5%; North Central-West, -3.4%) continue to lag their 2024 January-March order volumes.
According to AMT, the March increase in new orders continues the momentum that has been building since Q4 2024. However, investments in new capital equipment by contract machine shops underperformed the market in the latest report, which may explain the slower overall demand in Q1 2025 versus Q4 2024. AMT cautioned that “the decline was no significant enough to derail the upward momentum of the industry”.
Better demand was noted from aerospace machine shops during March; those businesses “increased their orders … to the highest monthly value on record and the most units ordered since December 2023,” AMT reported. That level of demand may be impeded by an ongoing strike by the International Assn. of Machinists union versus Pratt & Whitney operations, comparable to the adverse effect of the IAM strike against Boeing operations during September-October 2024.
While the current state of demand is positive, AMT remained cautious in its outlook. “Increasing uncertainty and downside risks to the economy could upend the positive path of manufacturing technology orders,” the group noted. “After forecasting robust growth in 2025, Oxford Economics recently revised its outlook to a high single-digit decline, as economic conditions could push the recovery in machinery demand to the latter half of 2026.”
