U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders. Source: AMTAccording to a Jan. 14 report by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), machine tool orders for November 2018 were $458 million, a 7% increase over November 2017. Fourth-quarter orders were significantly higher than those for the same period in 2017 and totaled $5 billion dollars for the 11 months of 2018. This translates to a whopping 22% increase over the same timeframe from the previous year. AMT predicts that 2018 sales will come in at 19% to 21% higher than 2017 when the final numbers come in.

November was particularly strong in the Northeast corridor as well as the Northeast Central corridor of the Ohio Valley and Michigan. In addition to relatively strong months by automotive and aerospace sectors, industrial machinery and contract machine shops were responsible for driving the strong November numbers. Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota experienced significant orders in the consumer electronics industry. The Northeast yielded the highest month-over-month gain due to a strong showing by the contract manufacturing sector.

AMT predicts that this trend will continue into 2019, with a strong single-digit percentage increase over 2018. The forecast is formulated from key indicators, such as automotive sales continuing to be strong. Some challenges still exist, such as the trade deal with China and the cost of steel and aluminum raw materials. Purchases in the Asian markets are starting to decrease as well, which may start to affect the market outlook for next year.

See the full report on the AMT website.