U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $341 million in May, reports the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA) and The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT). The figure from May is down 16.4 percent from April, but up 2.2 percent from the number reported in May 2007. The year-to-date total for manufacturing technology is $1,942.37, which is 17.2 percent higher than the total for 2007.

 

“The May machine tool consumption numbers again demonstrated continued strength and growth in many markets across the country, except in the automotive sector in the upper Midwest,” says Peter Borden, AMTDA president. “However, the concerns about energy and commodity prices, along with the traditional summer and pre-IMTS buying slowness, may in the next few months reduce the gains that we have seen thus far this year to bring the orders closer to the forecasts.”

 

The USMTC report, put together jointly by the AMTDA and the AMT, reports on U.S. manufacturing technology consumption in five geographic breakdowns.

 

The Northeast region experienced a rise in manufacturing technology consumption to $48.8 million, which is 4.7 percent higher than the previous month, but 16 percent less than in April 2007. The year-to-date total for the Northeast is $269.89 million, 0.1 percent less than the total from May 2007.

 

In the Southern region, manufacturing technology consumption was down 11.6 percent from April and down 19.0 percent from May 2007. This year’s total for May was $43.47 million, and the year-to-date total stood at $314.75 million, which is 47.2 percent higher than the 2007 total was in May.

With a May total of $119.31 million, manufacturing technology consumption in the Midwestern region was 26.2 percent less than the total was in April 2007; however, the May 2008 amount was 20.8 percent higher than it was in May 2007. The year-to-date total is $662.98 million, an increase of 42.6 percent from 2007.

 

At $91.15 million in May, the Central region’s manufacturing technology consumption was up 7.5 percent from April this year and 3.4 percent higher than the total was in May 2007. The year-to-date amount is 2.9 percent higher than the figure was a year ago, at $447.29 million.

In the Western region, manufacturing technology consumption, at $38.78 million, was 41.5 percent less than April’s total but up 9.2 percent from May 2007. The year-to-date total is $247.47 million, which is 0.2 percent less than the total from 2007 at the same time.