U.S. cutting tool consumption continued its solid growth in August, according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT).

Their latest collaborative monthly Cutting Tool Market Report showed that August consumption totaled $178.1 million, up 2.6% from July and up 8.9% year-over-year. It was a sequential rebound from the 1.5% decrease from June-to-July and outpaced the 6.7% year-over-year growth that July had. Year-to-date consumption through July was $1.4 billion, up 7.9% compared to the first eight months of 2021.

“Some of the pricing pressures our industry has been experiencing have begun to ease,” commented Jeff Major, president of USCTI. “Cutting tool sales have remained steady since the beginning of Q2 2022. Year-over-year sales are up in the high single-digit percentages. There is some market uncertainty as we move into Q4 and beyond. Indications are that the transportation sector will be a leading market in 2023.”

Kyocera SGS Precision Tool president Tom Haag also commented in the report on how well the cutting tool industry is performing and the industry’s relationship with the transportation sector:

“August was a surprisingly resilient month, considering that typically it is negatively impacted by the seasonality of automotive model changes and pent-up demand for summer vacations,” he said. “The cutting tool market is still not back to pre-pandemic levels, but it is continually clawing its way back. As automotive manufacturing continues to recover, aerospace production in the USA is still languishing behind. Forecasts of a complete recovery are still more than one year away as we face economic headwinds and supply chain bottlenecks.”

The report graph below includes the 12-month moving average for the durable goods shipments and cutting tool orders. These values are calculated by taking the average of the most recent 12 months and plotting them over time.