“At this pace, the industry would post orders equal to all of 2010 by the end of August,” said Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT. “Still, industry leaders view the rest of 2011 with cautious optimism given the weakness in parts of the economy illustrated by the Dow’s plunge at the beginning of August. We expect a bump in orders related to customers taking advantage of the current bonus depreciation rate before it is reduced in 2012."
The USMTO report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations 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.
U.S. manufacturing technology orders are also reported on a regional basis for five geographic breakdowns of the United States:
Northeast region At $61.82 million, June manufacturing technology orders in the Northeast region were down 2.9% when compared with the $63.68 million total for May but up 18.3% when compared with June a year ago. The year-to-date total of $367.33 million is 72.1% more than the comparable figure for 2010.
Southern Region June manufacturing technology orders in the Southern region totaled $65.77 million, 18.5% more than May’s $55.49 million and 94.2% more than the June 2010 total. With a year-to-date total of $306.30 million, 2011 is up 64.0% when compared with 2010 at the same time.
Midwest region Midwest region manufacturing technology orders in June stood at $155.39 million, 5.5% more than the May total of $147.24 million and up 114.0% when compared with last June. At $855.13 million, the 2011 year-to-date total is 157.1% more than the comparable figure for 2010.
Central region Manufacturing technology orders in the Central region in June totaled $124.86 million, up 30.8% from May’s $95.48 million and up 126.7% when compared with the June 2010 figure. The $677.66 million year-to-date total is 108.2% higher than the total for the same period in 2010.
Western Region Western region manufacturing technology orders totaled $51.55 million in June, 40.7% more than the $36.64 million total for May and 99.2% higher than the tally for June 2010. At $247.35 million, 2011 year-to-date is up 70.5% when compared with last year at the same time.
