Machine Tool Consumption Up 31% Year-Over-Year

January U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $297.48 million, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association and The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 9.8% from December, but up 30.9% from the total of $227.23 million reported for January 2006.

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

While early forecasts for 2007 have suggested it is unlikely that growth in our industry's sales will surpass the results of 2006, January has made an impressive start, says John J. Healy, AMTDA president. Results were well above year-ago levels in almost every region, and were the highest for the month since 2000."

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
Northeast Region manufacturing technology consumption in January stood at $54.19 million, down 5.9% from December's $57.57 million but 75.2% higher than the $30.94 million January 2006 total.

Southern Region
January manufacturing technology consumption in the Southern Region was $32.03 million, 41.1% less than the $54.39 million tallied in December and 12.7% less than the $36.68 million total for January 2006.

Midwestern Region
With a January total of $77.61 million, Midwest Region manufacturing technology consumption was up 7.2% compared with December's $72.39 million and 11.1% higher than the $69.88 million total for January a year ago.

Central Region
January manufacturing technology consumption in the Central Region totaled $74.88 million, 8.6% less than December's $81.91 million, but up 41.9% when compared with the $52.78 million total for January 2006.

Western Region
At $58.76 million, Western Region January manufacturing technology consumption was 7.7% less than December's $63.63 million, but 59.0% more than the January 2006 total of $36.95 million.

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