US: August manufacturing technology orders totaled US$356.69 million in the US according to AMT — The Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total was up 0.4 percent from July but down 6.0 percent when compared with the total of US$379.26 million reported for August 2013. With a year-to-date total of US$3,076.98 million, 2014 is down 2.4 percent compared with 2013.

“US manufacturing activity remains at a brisk pace, and especially encouraging for manufacturing technology orders was a recent uptick in durable goods orders, particularly in aerospace, automotive, and several other key industries,” said Douglas K Woods, president of AMT. 

“There has also been good news in factory employment as more manufacturers add workers to their payrolls. With AMT’s Global Forecasting & Marketing Conference taking place this week in Detroit featuring some of the top industry analysts and economists, we believe we will be hearing more positive news from their forecasts for the manufacturing technology industry over the next few years.”

Staying in the US, the country’s cutting tool consumption was down 2.7 percent in August, totaling US$166 million, according to the US Cutting Tool Institute and AMT. This figure is also a 3.0 percent drop on the y-o-y numbers. 

“August has traditionally been a period of slower sales for the cutting tool industry due to summer holidays and automotive model change-overs,” said Tom Haag, president of USCTI. “The three-month rolling average actually shows the sales as fairly steady throughout the summer.  The third quarter should close much stronger with September bringing the industry back to full speed and the IMTS exhibition driving new interest with record attendance.”