Machine shops and other manufacturers purchased $179.5 million worth of cutting tools during December 2024, -2.0% less than during November and -4.3% less than during December 2023. As a result, the cumulative total for 2024 cutting-tool purchases was $2.43 billion, barely above (0.6%) the 12-month total for 2023.
“Our industry continued to feel the effects of a stagnated aerospace market as we ended 2024, and this sets us up for a rather uneven first and second quarter,” stated Steve Boyer, president of the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute.
Data for cutting tool orders is supplied by USCTI and AMT - the Assn. for Manufacturing Technology in the latest Cutting Tool Market Report, their monthly summary of shipments by companies who comprise the majority of the U.S. market for cutting tools. In their announcement, USCTI and AMT noted that 2024 year-to-date growth rate for cutting tool purchases declined every month from April through December.
Cutting tools are significant consumable purchases for machine shops and manufacturers, meaning that shipments of cutting tools are a reliable index to real-time manufacturing activity.
“Cutting tool markets still tended to perform better than other markets through the end of 2024 and start of 2025 but have noticeably softened,” Boyer continued. “Adjusted lower outlooks for this year in the transportation, automotive, aerospace, and defense sectors will project a slower rebound.”
