The April USMTO report shows that demand slipped across all regions of the coverage. In the Northeast, new orders for metal-cutting equipment declined 7.0% from March to $73.33 million during April. The latest figure represents a 44.1% improvement over the April 2017 total, and brings the regional year-to-date total for metal-cutting equipment orders to $286.6 million, 25.5% higher than last year’s January-April order total.
In the Southeast, April’s new orders for metal-cutting equipment totaled just $38.26 million, a decline of 36.1% from March, and of 5.3% from April 2017. The regional year-to-date new-order total for metal-cutting equipment is $164.0 million 7.0% higher than the total for the comparable period of 2017.
The North Central-East region reported new orders for metal-cutting equipment at $93.94 million, down 7.0% from March but up 10.3% higher than the April 2017 result. For the January-to-April period, the regional total for metal-cutting equipment new orders was $355.8 million, a rise of 13.6% versus last year’s four-month result.
In the North Central-West region, new orders for metal-cutting equipment totaled $73.37 million, down 26.0% from March but up 41.4% from April 2017. The year-to-date result for metal-cutting equipment in the region is $298.44 million, an increase over 43.4% over last year’s figure.
New orders for metal-cutting equipment in the South Central region declined to $29.44 million during April, a drop of 43.7% from March and of 29.9% from April 2017. The regional total for YTD new orders is $170.75 million, up 34.3% over the last year’s comparable result.
Finally, in the West region new orders for metal-cutting equipment totaled $70.27 million during April, down 31.8% from March and down 10.5% from April 2017. For the January-April period, the West region’s new orders for metal-cutting equipment total $296.5 million, a 14.7% improvement over last year’s figure.
