First Quarter Machine Tool Consumption Up 19%

March U.S. machine tool consumption of $300.59 million was up 25.7% from February and up 6.6% from the total of $281.90 million reported for March 2004. With a year-to-date total of $737.24 million, 2005 was up 19.4% compared with 2004, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association and the Association for Manufacturing Technology.

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These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.

"Despite some unsettling economic news in the last few weeks, capital investment in machine tools is still strong," stated Ralph J. Nappi, AMTDA president. "Increased productivity and capacity requirements continue to pushU.S. manufacturers to invest to be globally competitive."

The United States Machine Tool Consumption (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. Analysis of machine tool consumption provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity.

U.S. machine tool consumption is also reported on a regional basis for five geographic break-downs of the United States.

Northeast Region
March machine tool consumption in the Northeast Region totaled $41.03 million, up 5.0% from February's $39.07 million and up 33.6% when compared with March a year ago. The year-to-date total of $100.58 million was 22.5% higher than the comparable figure in 2004.

Southern Region
At $59.18 million, Southern Region machine tool consumption in March was 79.9% higher than the $32.89 million tallied in February and 19.6% ahead of the total for March 2004. With a year-to-date total of $128.37 million, 2005 was running 41.4% ahead of 2004 at the same time.

Midwestern Region
Midwestern Region machine tool consumption in March rose to $110.88 million, up 21.5% when compared with February's $91.24 million, but down 9.7% compared with last March. At $280.79 million, the year-to-date 2005 total was up 9.8% compared with 2004 at the same time.

Central Region
With a total of $57.96 million, March Central Region machine tool consumption was up 31.2% from February's $44.16 million and up 9.8% when compared with March a year ago. The year-to-date total of $142.50 million was 25.4% higher than the comparable figure for 2004.

Western Region
March Western Region machine tool consumption totaled $31.53 million, slightly less than February's $31.82 million, but 20.7% higher than the total for March 2004. At $85.00 million, the year-to-date total was up 12.8% compared with 2004 at the same time.