The data is drawn from the monthly Cutting Tool Market Report, which presents cutting-tool consumption data reported by participating manufacturers who represent the majority of U.S. suppliers of those goods. CTMR results offer an index to overall manufacturing activity, because cutting tools are widely used in the production of parts and components supplied to a very wide range of industrial sectors.
Through three months of 2022, U.S. cutting tool consumption totals $523.9 million, ab increase of 11.0% compared to January-March 2021.
“The total sales volume for March 2022 is the highest total since October of 2019; this is a welcome volume,” according to AMT Cutting Tool Product Group chairman Brad Lawton.
“However, we must ask: What part of this volume is the result of inflation?” Lawton continued. “At the recent MFG Meeting presented by AMT, the presence of inflation in the economy was clear but not expected to develop into a recession. The cutting tool industry will positively evaluate the future and plan accordingly for a soft landing.”
The annual inflation rate for the United States was 8.5% for the 12 months ended March 2022, according to U.S. Labor Department data published April 12. It was the highest annual inflation rate reported since December 1981.
