Machine tool consumption slowed in September

The American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (www.amtda.com)and the Association For Manufacturing Technology (www.amtonline.org)reported September machine tool consumption was 2.4 percent lower than August with sales of $294.84 million. That also was 20.5 percent lower compared with sales in September 2004.

On a year-todate basis, machine tool sales in 2005 are 10.2 percent higher compared with 2004, with a total of $2.3 billion. Although orders appeared to be slowing, John B. Byrd III, president of the AMT, said he believes trends toward increased sales will continue because of the improved exchange rate of the U.S. Dollar to foreign currencies and high-energy costs making off-shore manufacturing less attractive to producers.

The regional breakdown for September sales and the percentage increase over sales in August are:

• West - $35.83 million/-2 percent
• Central - $65.26 million/-4.7 percent
• South - $41.49 million/+3.8 percent
• Midwest - $120.51 million/-6.2 percent
• Northeast - $31.74 million/+11.5 percent