United States manufacturing technology orders for June 2014 totaled $405.73 million, up 12.6% from May but down 2.1% from the same period in 2013, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) as reported by manufacturing.net recently.
The year-to-date machine tools orders totaled 2,349.38 million, down 2.7% from 2013. These numbers are compiled by AMT from companies participating in The United States Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) program and are based on actual data compiled by the trade association representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology.
The USMTO report is a strong indicator of the vitality of domestic manufacturing since “manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity,” according to manufacturing.net.
AMT President Douglas K. Woods predicts moderate growth in the domestic machine tool sector.
“Order gains in June were driven by two factors – the end of the quarter and continued strength in key customer industries, especially automotive, aerospace, medical and energy,” said Woods. “What really warrants attention, however, is a rise in the average value of orders, as this suggests manufacturers are making investments in greater productivity as well as capacity. Our forecasts suggest continued moderate growth throughout the rest of the year and going into 2015.”
The Southeast was the strongest of the five regions in the United States at $214.05 million in manufacturing technology orders. The North Central-East was the second strongest region domestically with $119.32 million in orders.
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