Machine tool orders posted mixed results in November, slipping a bit on a monthly basis while recording a solid gain compared with a year earlier, according to a monthly report by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (McLean, VA).
Orders totaled almost $426 million in November, down 3.6% from an adjusted $441.65 million in October, according to the AMT report. However, orders represented a 19% increase from the almost $358 million in November 2016.
For the first 11 months of 2017, orders totaled $4.06 billion, up 9.4% from the $3.7 billion during the same period in 2016.
The figures for machine tool orders are based on information from companies participating in AMT’s US Manufacturing Technology Orders program.
The machine tool industry began to slide in mid-2014 as falling oil prices held down demand. A sustained recovery didn’t begin until March 2017. That was in sync with a general expansion in manufacturing that took place last year.
AMT said it expects additional expansion from the US tax legislation revamp, which President Donald Trump signed into law in December. That cut the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%.
The lower business tax rate “will increase business confidence and investment,” Douglas K. Woods, AMT’s president, said in a statement.
Besides energy, other industry consumers of machine tools include the automotive and aerospace industries.
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