Machine tool orders posted a monthly gain in August but were down compared with a year ago.
Orders totaled $460.7 million for August, according to a monthly report issued today by AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology.
That represented a 16 percent increase from an adjusted $396.2 million in July. However, it was a 14.5 percent decline from $538.9 million in August 2021.
The monthly gain “was unexpected,” Pat McGibbon, chief knowledge officer of AMT, said in a statement. “While orders are returning to the typical seasonal patterns we expect, they are doing so at a very elevated level.”
August had the first monthly gain since March and the highest order level since April.
Orders normally tail off in July and August, AMT said. That’s especially true in years when AMT holds its IMTS event in September in Chicago.
Orders for the year’s first eight months totaled $3.69 billion, a 5.3 percent gain from the same period in 2021.
McLean, Va.-based AMT said orders may finish 2022 strong but the machine tool industry still faces challenges.
The 2022 edition of IMTS “was maybe one of the best in over 40 years for selling machines right off the floor,” McGibbon said. IMTS normally is held every other year but the 2020 show was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, machine tool makers face an uneven supply chain situation, McGibbon said.
“Inventories of durable goods components have been increasing steadily since September 2020, while certain supply bottlenecks are holding up the delivery of machines already ordered,” he said.
“We haven’t begun to see any significant increase in cancellations, but long lead times coupled with a potential economic slowdown could pose a threat to sustained order activity in the last quarter of 2022 and into the first half of 2023," McGibbon added.
The Federal Reserve is boosting interest rates, trying to combat inflation. That has raised concerns the economy could fall into recession.
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