Machine tool orders posted their third-best results in 2022 despite slipping from the year before, AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology said today.
Orders for the year totaled $5.54 billion, McLean, Va.-based AMT said in a monthly report. That was down 6 percent from 2021’s $5.9 billion.
For much of 2022, orders ran ahead of 2021’s pace. However, orders slowed at the end of the year.
In December, orders reached $434.1 million, down 1.7 percent from an adjusted $441.5 million in November and a decline of 27 percent from $593.7 million in December 2021.
The figures are from companies participating in AMT’s U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) program.
“The industry recorded its third-best year in 2022,” Pat McGibbon, AMT’s chief knowledge officer, said in a statement. “Despite the reduction in orders from 2021, it is hard to find a negative story about the manufacturing technology industry.”
AMT said sectors such as machine shops and agricultural equipment reduced orders last year compared with 2021 but are still running higher than 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Manufacturing is dealing with interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve. The Fed is trying to cool the economy to reduce inflation.
“The recession that pundits have been predicting for months is now being termed a ‘rolling recession,’ where some industries grow while others contract at different rates,” McGibbon said. “We in the manufacturing industry call that business as usual, and 2022 proved no different.”
Connect With Us
