January U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $130.96 million, according to AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, and AMT -- The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total was down 40.3% from December but up 26.2% from the total of $103.77 million reported for January 2009.

"Many customers placed orders in December to take advantage of tax relief measures, pulling orders out of January 2010," said Peter Borden, AMTDA President. "The good news is that January 2010 orders are still 26% ahead of January 2009.  Fortunately, there are measures moving through Congress that will expand these benefits, incentivizing manufacturers to invest in capital equipment in 2010."

In the Northeast region consumption totaled $25.88 million, down 40.5% when compared with the $43.49 million total for December but up 31.4% when compared with January a year ago.

The Southern region's consumption came in at $28.51 million, which fell 3.6% below December’s $29.57 million but was 95.8% higher than the total for January 2009.

In the Midwest the total was  $37.41 million, 39.9% less than December’s $62.22 million but up 31.2% when compared with January a year ago.

At $27.10 million, the Central region was down 50.6% from December’s $54.81 million but up 6.0% when compared with January a year ago.

And consumption in the Western region fell 58.7% to $12.06 million when compared with December’s $29.22 million and was down 21.8% when compared with January 2009.