Orders totaled just $304.74 million in February, a 14.8 percent decrease from February of 2014 and a 10.6 percent drop from January. A year-to-date total showed that 2015 was down 9.8 percent compared to 2014, with a low figure of $645.76 million.
Those numbers were configured using reports provided by businesses who partake in AMT’s U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) program.
Read more: The Top Manufacturing Technology Trends for 2015 and Beyond
The USMTO report includes data on both regional and national U.S. orders of machine tools and related equipment, whether they’re domestic or imported. Orders of U.S. manufacturing technology are reported regionally via six geographic breakdowns of the United States.
February’s manufacturing technology orders in the North Central/East region had a value of $70.8 million, a 23.2 percent drop from January and 15.2 percent crash form February 2014. The year-to-date orders total was 3.3 percent less than that same time period in 2014.
The North Central-West region of the U.S. actually demonstrated positive figures, as the February orders, which totaled $77.07 million, were up 34.5 percent from both January 2015 and February 2014. As a result, the combined year-to-date orders of $134.4 million were up 26.5 percent from that same time period in 2014.
“U.S. manufacturing is facing some pressure in terms of a stronger dollar and lower capital expenditures from the energy industry, but in taking the long view, we’re still in a good position overall,” said AMT President Douglas K. Woods. “The automotive and aerospace industries continue to be strong performers, and a number of international manufacturers are making significant investments in U.S. production facilities. We project that manufacturing technology orders will gain momentum as we move through the second quarter.”
