.S. manufacturers’ and machine shops’ cutting-tool demand fell -10.0% from August to September, totaling $188.7 million for the month. That figure, supplied by AMT - the Assn. of Manufacturing Technology and the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute in their monthly Cutting Tool Market Report, represents a drop of -6.3% from September 2023 and brings the year-to-date total for cutting-tool demand to $1.86 billion, slightly higher than the January-September 2023 total.
“September shipments were hurt by the machinists’ union strike at Boeing, eating into one of the largest sources of recent cutting tool demand,” offered Mark Killion, director of U.S. Industries at Oxford Economics. “In addition, typical seasonal weakness was compounded by retrenchment in output of other customer sectors, such as business equipment, materials, and supplies for construction.”
The CTMR is a monthly summary of shipments made by companies who comprise the majority of the U.S. market for cutting tools – whose customers are contract machine shops (job shops) and OEMs for whom cutting tools are significant consumable. Because of the wide range of markets served by cutting-tool buyers, the CTMR is considered a relevant indicator of overall manufacturing activity.
Cutting-tool shipments, which parallels current manufacturing activity, are distinct from machine-tool demand, which depicts manufacturers’ anticipation of future activity. In the case of the latter, September 2024 delivered a solid revival in demand.
“Despite the success and positive energy from IMTS for most exhibitors in Chicago, tooling continues to track at a slower pace,” offered AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group chairman Jack Burley. “Staying consistent with the latest Purchasing Manager’s Index of less than 50, cutting-tool consumption is still quite flat, indicating most shops are not running at full capacity.
“Inflation, interest rates, raw material costs, and pre-election uncertainty put many projects on hold,” Burley offered. “I do not think we will see any significant improvements until after the first quarter of 2025, when spindle utilization is expected to increase.”
