February Machine Tool Consumption Up 22% YTD

February U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $163.96 million, according to the Association For Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was up 28.8% from January and up 22.1% from the total of $134.34 million reported for February 2009.

With a year-to-date total of $291.27 million, 2010 is up 22.3% compared with 2009. These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.

“Manufacturing technology orders start off 2010 up 22% through February, showing that the market has turned and is slowly recovering from the worst single year downturn in our industry’s history,” according to Douglas K. Woods, AMT president. “That increase could be twice as large if banks would ease credit restrictions. Our banks have a tenth of our GDP and nearly 24 times the required reserve in the Federal Depository when that money should be working to rebuild America.”

The U.S. Manufacturing Technology 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 manufacturing technology consumption provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity.

U.S. manufacturing technology consumption is also reported on a regional basis for five geographic breakdowns of the U.S.

Northeast Region
Northeast Region manufacturing technology consumption in February rose to $26.64 million, up 6.1% when compared with January’s $25.11 million but down 3.1% when compared with February 2009. With a year-to-date total of $51.75 million, 2010 was up 9.6% when compared with 2009 at the same time.

Southern Region
February manufacturing technology consumption in the Southern Region totaled $19 million, down 33.2% when compared with the $28.42 million total for January and off 11% when compared with February a year ago. The $47.42 million year-to-date total was 32.1% more than the total for the same period in 2009.

Midwest Region
With a total of $43.06 million, Midwest Region manufacturing technology consumption in February was 19.7% higher than January’s $35.96 million and up 9% when compared with last February. The year-to-date total of $79.02 million was 16.2% above the comparable figure in 2009.

Central Region
Totaling $53.20 million, Central Region manufacturing technology consumption in February rose 102.1% above January’s $26.32 million and was 76.6% higher than the total for February 2009. At $79.52 million, 2010 year-to-date was up 42.8% when compared with last year at the same time.

Western Region
At $22.07 million, February manufacturing technology consumption in the Western Region was up 91.9% from January’s $11.50 million and up 39.1% when compared with February a year ago. The $33.57 million year-to-date total was 7.3% more than the 2009 total at the same time.