Area Development
February U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $163.96 million, according to The Association For Manufacturing Technology and AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association.

This total was up 28.8 percent from January and up 22.1 percent from the total of $134.34 million reported for February 2009. With a year-to-date total of $291.27 million, 2010 is up 22.3 percent compared with 2009.

"Manufacturing technology orders start off 2010 up 22 percent through February, showing that the market has turned and is slowly recovering from the worst single year downturn in our industry's history," said Douglas K. Woods, AMT president, in a press statement.

He noted that the increase could be double if there was more credit available and less stringent credit restrictions in place.

The United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations, provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.

Northeast Region manufacturing technology consumption in February rose to $26.64 million, up 6.1 percent when compared with January's $25.11 million but down 3.1 percent when compared with February 2009.

February manufacturing technology consumption in the Southern Region totaled $19.00 million, down 33.2 percent when compared with the $28.42 million total for January and off 11 percent when compared with February a year ago. The $47.42 million year-to-date total was 32.1 percent more than the total for the same period in 2009.

With a total of $43.06 million, Midwest Region manufacturing technology consumption in February was 19.7 percent higher than January's $35.96 million and up 9 percent when compared with last February. The year-to-date total of $79.02 million was 16.2percent above the comparable figure in 2009.

Totaling $53.20 million, Central Region manufacturing technology consumption in February rose 102.1 percent above January's $26.32 million and was 76.6 percent higher than the total for February 2009. At $79.52 million, 2010 year-to-date was up 42.8 percent when compared with last year at the same time.

At $22.07 million, February manufacturing technology consumption in the Western Region was up 91.9 percent from January's $11.50 million and up 39.1 percent when compared with February a year ago. The $33.57 million year-to-date total was 7.3 percent more than the 2009 total at the same time.