United states MTC up 19.9% YTD

According to AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology and AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, April U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $396.47 million. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 27.6% from March, but up 29.2% from the total of $306.86 million reported for April 2007. With a year-to-date total of $1,587.27 million, 2008 is up 19.9% compared with 2007.

These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.

"The demand for manufacturing equipment continues to be healthy, with year-to-year growth of nearly 30% since April 2007," says John B. Byrd III , AMT president. "Export demand for U.S. manufactured products and the global boom in infrastructure development continues to fuel the surprising growth in capital equipment investment. The decline from March to April is not surprising, considering the extraordinary results posted in March."

The United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment. Analysis of manufacturing technology consumption provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity.

U.S. manufacturing technology consumption is also reported on a regional basis for five geographic breakdowns of the United States. For geographic breakdowns, please visit amtonline.org.