Machine tool orders in the United States rose in October for the third straight month of increases. Orders for the entire year still lag behind 2012 domestic machine tool orders.

Industry Week’s Robert Brooks details the USMTO report issued by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT):

New orders for machine tools and related technologies rose 10.2% from September to October, according to data in the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders report. Domestic machine shops and other manufacturers booked $435.02 million during October, up from $397.57 million for September. Still, the new figure indicates a 3.2% decline from October 2012, continuing the weaker year-on-year results that have prevailed for much of 2013.

The ten-month total in 2013 domestic machine tool orders totaled $3.94 billion, which is 10.6% weaker than the same January – October span in 2012. October orders for metal forming equipment jumped a whopping 139.7% for a monthly total of $16.92 million. Metal cutting equipment orders in October showed less stratospheric growth than metal forming equipment but a bigger chunk of the market, increasing 7.9% from September for a total of $418.09 million.

AMT President Douglas Woods predicts a strong year in 2014 for the U.S. machine tool industry.

“October’s order growth, combined with the latest PMI reading, is added reinforcement that manufacturing is continuing on its positive trend,” Woods said. “We expect more good news headed into 2014, especially as domestic energy costs continue to drop and as key industry segments show solid growth, particularly automotive.

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