U.S. machine shops’ and other manufacturers’ December orders for new metalworking machines rose to $814.3 million during December 2025, surging +86.7% from November and +59.9% higher than December 2024. It was the highest monthly order value ever recorded in the monthly U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report, maintained by AMT - the Assn. for Manufacturing Technology
The USMTO report is an index to future manufacturing activity because it quantifies machining operations’ investments as they anticipate new production programs. AMT’s report tracks manufacturers’ purchases of metal-cutting and metal-forming machinery, according to order value and machine units, nationwide and in six regions.
The remarkable increase brought the 12-month total for 2025 manufacturing technology orders to $5.74 billion, or +22.5% higher than the January-December 2024 order total.
The data is supplied by AMT - the Assn. for Manufacturing Technology, which tracks machine tool demand in its monthly U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report.
AMT explained that the 2025 had already arrived at a year-over-year increase (+5.1%) by the end of November, but the December data closes out a period during which order values increased, despite the number of new units wavering.
The order-value increases are ascribed to more (and more valuable) automation functions paired with new machine units.
“These divergent trends indicate that the heightened uncertainty following the April 2 tariff announcement may have delayed some orders, but that large, longer-term investments were undeterred by rising uncertainty and political noise,” AMT detailed.
Demand for new machines by contract machine shops (i.e., job shops) increased 19.1% in 2025, below the overall growth rate, which AMT noted contributed to the “divergence between dollar value and unit trends.”
An opposite effect was at work among aerospace manufacturing operations. Their typically higher-value orders increased 45.1% over the comparable figure for 2024.
Machine tool orders from the automotive sector in 2025 increased 22.2% year-over-year, as OEMs invested to accomplish their renewed commitment to gas-powered vehicles.
“The fastest-growing industry (sector) in 2025 was commercial and service machinery, which grew 121.5% over 2024 levels,” AMT reported.
The Association commented that “continued consumer demand and elevated investment in manufacturing technology lend credence to the Federal Reserve’s assertion that interest rates are approaching, if not at, the neutral rate as supply and demand forces in the economy move closer to alignment.” That should propel continued demand growth as 2026 proceeds, according to AMT.
About the Author
Robert Brooks
Content Director
Robert Brooks has been a business-to-business reporter, writer, editor, and columnist for more than 20 years, specializing in the primary metal and basic manufacturing industries.