According to the Association for Manufacturing Technology, total U.S. sales in February pulled in just $385.89 million, representing a 10.6% fall off from last year. While this number is up 5.7% from January’s weak totals, it puts year-to-date sales down 11.9% from 2012.
“A year-to-date decline in orders compared to 2012 is in line with expectations we had for a slight slowdown in the first two quarters of 2013,” said AMT President Douglas K. Woods. “This is in line with our economists’ predictions that orders for 2013 will stay relatively flat compared to 2012.”
Woods does expect second-half growth is expected to offset the slump, however, which provides some optimism for the recent report.
“A month-to-month gain is certainly good to see, and these numbers seem to echo some of the other recent economic data, including gains in both factory orders and durable goods orders,” he said.
The United States Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report, compiled by the trade association representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, provides regional and national U.S. orders data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment. Analysis of manufacturing technology orders provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity.
