U.S. manufacturing technology consumption for the month of February, 2008 totaled $308.50 million, which is 4.4% higher than the total of $295.39 million reported for February 2007. This February, 2008 total, however, was down 4.0% from January, 2008 consumption estimates.  With a year-to-date total of $624.28 million, 2008 consumption is up 1.2% compared with 2007.

These consumption statistics are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) program.

AMT-The Association for Manufacturing Technology and AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association jointly administer the USMTC program.

“Industry forecasters called for a first-half downturn in manufacturing technology orders,” said John B. Byrd III, AMT President. “The economic stimulus package has kept orders from falling in the first quarter, but the full impact of the package won’t be realized until the fourth quarter when the deadline for stimulus benefits and the industry’s largest trade event, IMTS 2008 (September 8 - 13, McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill.), will likely pull equipment investment dollars from the first half of both 2008 and 2009.”

The USMTC report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment. The USMTC report offers breakouts on consumption of both metal cutting and metal forming machines.

Analysis of manufacturing technology consumption provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity.

The USMTC report estimates U.S. manufacturing technology consumption on a regional basis for five geographic areas of the United States.  The February, 2008 USMTC report, for instance, estimates that manufacturing technology consumption in the southern region of the U.S. was up 47.8% from January’s totals, and up 21.4% when compared with February 2007.

For more information, go to this site: http://www.amtonline.org/