U.S. manufacturers consumed $215.13 million worth of cutting tools during May 2018, 5.6% higher than the April total and 12.1% higher than the May 2017 total. Through the first five months of 2018, cutting-tool consumption totals $999.82 million, up 10.1% versus January-May 2017.
“The cutting tool industry continues to show improved growth in 2018,” according to Brad Lawton, chairman of AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group. “The ball is still rolling with positive numbers despite the chaos with global trade agreements.”
AMT and the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute issue the monthly Cutting Tool Market Report, documenting actual sales totals for cutting tools by participating manufacturers, who represent the majority of the U.S. market for those products.
Cutting tools are understood to represent “a primary consumable in the manufacturing process,” so data on consumption of cutting tools is an indicator of current manufacturing activity. This contrasts with AMT’s monthly report on machine tool orders, which functions as an indicator of future manufacturing activity.
However, both reports demonstrate the sustained robustness of the manufacturing economy, which has expanding for more than 12 months.
In their May CTMR announcement, AMT and USCTI also quoted Costikyan Jarvis, president of Jarvis Cutting Tools, in Rochester, N.H.: “The cutting tool results match overall economic indicators and continue to show strength in the manufacturing sector.
Like Lawton, Jarvis cautioned that the prospect of global trade restrictions introduce caution to the otherwise positive trade circumstances.
