U.S. Machine Tool Consumption Rises

ByJohn S. McClenahen Gross new orders for both metal cutting and metal forming machine tools for U.S. consumption increased in June, according to data jointly released this week by AMT-The Association for Manufacturing Technology, McLean, Va., and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, Rockville, Md. New orders for metal cutting machine tools totaled $205.76 million in June, up 9.3% from May's $188.23 million. New orders for metal forming machine tools were $31.17 million, a 208.8% increase from May's $10.09 million. For the first six months of 2004, new orders of machine tools for U.S. consumption totaled just under $1.25 billion, up 31.9% from the first six months of 2003. For the first six months of 2004, new orders of metal cutting machine tools were $1.162 billion, up 37.9% from the first half of 2003, while new orders of metal forming machine tools were down 16.8% to $87.15 million.