From January to August, U.S. metalworking machine tool orders still maintained a growth momentum

The American Association of Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors Association (AMTDA) have released the latest statistics on US metalworking machine tool orders. In August 2011, the US metal processing machine tool orders were 2188 units, an increase of 5.65% over the previous month's 2071 units, and an increase of 43.95% over the 1520 units in August 2010. In August, U.S. metalworking machine tool orders were $461 million, down 9.4 percent from $508 million in the previous month, but up 88.5 percent from $244 million in August 2010. From January to August 2011, the cumulative order value of metal processing machine tools in the United States was 3.439 billion US dollars, a substantial increase of 101% compared with 1.711 billion US dollars in the same period of 2010. In terms of product categories, in August, orders for metal cutting machine tools and metal forming machine tools in the United States were 2,036 and 152, respectively. In August, orders for metal cutting machine tools were US$418 million, an increase of 3.5% from US$404 million in the previous month and an increase of 79.8% compared with US$232 million in August 2010; orders for metal forming and manufacturing machine tools were 043 million USD, down 59.1% from the previous month's $105 million, but still up 256.9% from $12 million in August 2010. From January to August 2011, the order value of metal cutting machine tools in the United States was 3.067 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 92.4%; the order value of metal forming and manufacturing machine tools was 372 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 219.6%. Douglas Woods, Chairman of AMT, said: 'Despite recent news reports suggesting that U.S. economic growth may be stagnant, manufacturing technology and machine tool industry orders have maintained their growth momentum. With orders showing a substantial increase over last year, the industry outlook is more optimistic, and companies are also watching to future development opportunities, so new capital investment will be added.”