Machine tool consumption up 53% year-to-date

News accompanies year-to-date sales increase for U.S. and Canadian distributors of power transmission products

Year-to-date, U.S. consumption of manufacturing technology (machine tools and related items) rose nearly 53% through May, according to the latest United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption report from the American Machine Tool Distributors Assn. and AMT-The Assn. for Manufacturing Technology.

On a monthly basis, May’s consumption total of $178.34 million was down nearly 23% compared to April, but up nearly 59% compared to May 2009.

“While we would like to see first-quarter growth rates continue, we are not surprised by the typical second-quarter ebb and flow in capital spending,” said AMTDA president Peter Borden. “We have seen an additional month of substantial orders which helps to confirm that a sustainable recovery is taking place despite the buzz of those forecasting a W-shaped rebound. Industry forecasts for the year have been revised slightly upward by many sources and, if Congress passes the bonus depreciation allowance, this could accelerate growth even further.”

Regionally, year-to-date machine tool consumption was up in all sectors of the country, with the highest growth in the South and Central areas.

In other news, U.S. manufacturer’s month-over-month sales of power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) products rose 2% in May while sales by Canadian manufacturers dropped 13%, according to May 2010 sales data released by the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) this week in its Market Outlook Report.

When comparing May 2010 sales figures to May 2009, however, U.S. manufacturers’ sales rose 13.2 % and Canadian manufacturers’ sales rose 5.5%.

Both groups remain neutral when it comes to market confidence. U.S. manufacturers held steady at 5.0 and Canadian manufacturers at 4.9 on a scale of 1 (very pessimistic) to 10 (outstanding) measuring market confidence, according to PTDA.