U.S. machine tool consumption rose 17.8% month-on-month in September

The American Association of Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors Association (AMTDA) recently announced the September 2009 US machine tool consumption statistics. From January to September this year, the cumulative consumption of machine tools in the United States was 1.19993 billion US dollars, a decrease of 67.8% compared with the same period last year. Among them, in September, the production of machine tools in the United States was 987 units, an increase of 115 units from the previous month; the total consumption of machine tools was 1535.5 billion US dollars, an increase of 17.8% from the previous month, but a sharp drop of 69.3% from the same period last year. From the perspective of product categories, the consumption of metal cutting machine tools in the United States in September was 1327.4 million US dollars, an increase of 15.6% month-on-month and a year-on-year decrease of 68.1%. The consumption of metal forming and manufacturing machine tools was US$20.81 million, an increase of 33.6% month-on-month and a year-on-year decrease of 75.2%. AMTDA Chairman Peter Borden said that the US machine tool orders index improved slightly in September this year, which is in line with the monthly recovery trend of other indicators such as durable goods sales, PMI index and steel production. However, at present, the capacity utilization rate of factories is still maintained at 65% to 70%. Only when this indicator rises back to the level of 75% to 80% can the entire industry achieve a slow recovery.