January Machine Tool Consumption Down 40.3% from December

January U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $130.96 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 40.3% from December but up 26.2% from the total of $103.77 million reported for January 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.

"Many customers placed orders in December to take advantage of tax relief measures, pulling orders out of January 2010," said Peter Borden, AMTDA president. "The good news is that January 2010 orders are still 26% ahead of January 2009. Fortunately, there are measures moving through Congress that will ex-pand these benefits, incentivizing manufacturers to invest in capital equipment in 2010."

The United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption report, jointly compiled by the two trade as-sociations 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 pro-ductivity.

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

Northeast Region
January manufacturing technology consumption in the Northeast Region totaled $25.88 million, down 40.5% when compared with the $43.49 million total for December but up 31.4% when compared with January a year ago.

Southern Region
Totaling $28.51 million, Southern Region manufacturing technology consumption in January fell 3.6% be-low December's $29.57 million but was 95.8% higher than the total for January 2009.

Midwest Region
With a total of $37.41 million, Midwest Region manufacturing technology consumption in January was 39.9% less than December's $62.22 million but up 31.2% when compared with January a year ago.

Central Region
At $27.10 million, January manufacturing technology consumption in the Central Region was down 50.6% from December's $54.81 million but up 6.0% when compared with January a year ago.

Western Region
Western Region manufacturing technology consumption in January fell 58.7% to $12.06 million when compared with December's $29.22 million and was down 21.8% when compared with January 2009.