Orders for machine tools and other manufacturing technology, as recorded by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Consumption survey, declined 4% in February from the preceding month to $308.5-million. And January’s was 20% below the average of the three prior months. So the often-seen first-quarter decline in order levels is again seen this year.

On the other hand, the new February statistics are 4.4% higher than the figure reported for February a year ago. And, with a two-month total of $624.3-million, the 2008 USMTC year-to-date figure is up 1.2% compared to 2007.

Is the government’s stimulus helping? AMT president John B. Byrd III thinks so. “Industry forecasters called for a first-half downturn in manufacturing-technology orders,” he says. “The stimulus package has kept orders from falling in the first quarter, but the full impact of the package won’t be realized until the fourth quarter, when the deadline for stimulus benefits and the industry’s biggest trade event, IMTS 2008, will likely pull equipment-investment dollars from the first half of both 2008 and 2009.”

The USMTC monthly figures come from a survey of participating member firms that are part of the distributors’ national trade group and the Association for Manufacturing Technology, both in the Washington, D.C., area. Participants tend to lean toward metalcutting machines: For the first two months, 95% of USMTC-reported orders were for cutting equipment. According to the Census bureau, however, shipments (as opposed to orders) completed last year were only 75% cutting.

Regional orders: For the YTD, the Northeast is up 1.6%, the South is 33% higher, the Midwest region is 25% ahead of 2007, the South is down 17.5%, and the West is behind last year by 26%.

In Other Countries…

Orders in Italy for the first quarter edged up 0.3% compared to the same period in 2007, according to UCIMU – Sistemi per Produrre (Milan). The trade association’s absolute value index (the year 2000 = 100) his 123.2, the highest value ever reached during the January – March period. UCIMU president Alberto Tacchella notes that strength now comes from domestic orders, as opposed to export orders.

In Japan, February orders for cutting-type machine tools, posted by the JMTBA (Tokyo), were up 9% from January and off a half percent from February of a year before. Total orders for the first two months are even with last year.

AMT – The Assn. for Mfg. Technology, McLean, Va. 703-893-2900

Amer. Machine Tool Distributors’ Assn., Rockville, Md. 301-738-1200.