Machine tool orders declined in September compared with a year earlier despite the return of the IMTS show after a four-year hiatus.
Orders for the month totaled $519.3 million in September, McLean, Va.-based AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology said in a report released today. That was down 12 percent from $592.7 million in September 2021.
On a monthly basis, September orders climbed 13 percent from an adjusted $460.1 million in August.
AMT also produces IMTS, normally held every other year in Chicago. The 2020 edition of the event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The massive trade show typically provides a surge in machine tool orders.
AMT said 2022 was the first time September orders during an IMTS year lagged year-earlier results.
“We’re seeing the typical bump in orders brought on by IMTS and ‘the IMTS effect,’ but orders throughout 2022 are expected to fall short of 2021 order levels – the largest year in the program’s history,” Pat McGibbon, chief knowledge officer at AMT, said in a statement.
McGibbon said supply chain issues brought on by the pandemic continue to have an effect.
“The backlogs built over the last 18 months have lengthened delivery times and weigh on the decision to continue investing in additional equipment,” he said.
For the first nine months, orders totaled $4.2 billion, a 2.7 percent increase from the same period in 2021.
The figures are from companies participating in AMT’s U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) program.
AMT said demand for machine tools has been bolstered in sectors such as aerospace and agricultural equipment. The organization said overall demand for machine tools remains strong.
“Quotations remain high, and anecdotally, we’re hearing that demand from our customer industries is not slowing,” McGibbon said. “While signs are positive now, we do expect orders to be softer the remainder of the year for most production equipment.”
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