October manufacturing technology orders in the U.S. totaled $459.16 million, down 31.3% from September and down 0.1% from October 2011. However, with a year-to-date total of $4.75 billion, 2012 is still up 5.3% compared with 2011 despite the drastic drop, according to AMT - The Association for Manufacturing Technology
“Orders continue to be on pace for a record-setting year, and a monthly drop was fully expected in the month following IMTS,” said Douglas K. Woods, AMT President.
However, Woods noted that to maintain this pace, certain action is required by the U.S. government.
“While manufacturing continues to play a strong role in economic recovery, our main concern heading toward the end of the year is that lawmakers do what’s necessary to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff,’ and the implications it could have on the broader economy,” he said.
The United States Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report, compiled by the trade association representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, pro-vides 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.
Northeast Region: Manufacturing technology orders in the Northeast Region in October totaled $63.69 million, down 19.7% from September’s $79.27 million and down 3.6% when compared with the October 2011 figure. At $640.83 million, 2012 year-to-date is down 5.7% when compared with 2011 at the same time.
Southern Region: Southern Region manufacturing technology orders totaled $60.69 million in October, down 41.1% from the $102.99 million total for September but 12.8% higher than the total for October 2011. The year-to-date total of $683.23 million is 15.3% more than the comparable figure for 2011.
Midwest Region: At $162.75 million, October manufacturing technology orders in the Midwest Region were down 20.0% when compared with the $203.33 million total for September but up 10.3% when compared with October a year ago. With a year-to-date total of $1,530.30 million, 2012 is up 4.9% when compared with 2011 at the same time.
Central Region: October manufacturing technology orders in the Central Region totaled $124.77 million, 30.2% lower than September’s $178.71 million and down 8.8% when compared with the October 2011 figure. At $1,341.76 million, the 2012 year-to-date total was 6.8% more than the comparable figure for 2011.
Western Region: Western Region manufacturing technology orders in October stood at $47.27 million, down 54.6% from the September total of $104.07 million and 14.3% lower than the figure for October 2011. The $557.56 million year-to-date total was 5.7% above the total for the same period in 2011.