Our colleagues at AMT report that December was the strongest month of 2024 for machine tool orders in the US market (indeed, it was the best since May 2023) but cutting tools were at their lowest since February 2022. Overall, machine tool orders in 2024 were -4% lower than in 2023 with cutting tools orders falling by -1%
The US Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) programme tracks orders in the US market, based on the reports from participants in the survey. As noted above, total machine tool orders last year were down by -3.8% compared to 2023 but this hides a modest upturn in the final quarter with the 12-month rolling trend looking to have passed its lowest point in August 2024.
It is also worth noting that although the annual trend was negative for the 3rd consecutive year, the total value of machine tool orders for 2024 was still nearly 10% above the annual average (back to 1998). In terms of industry, there was a strong increase in demand from the aerospace sector despite the well-publicised problems at Boeing; the automotive industry was weaker in 2024 but this followed three years of strong growth as the sector recovered from the pandemic.
At the regional level, only the Western area saw machine tool orders higher than in 2023 (by +14%), although the South-East and North-Central-West (both -2%) were close to a neutral result. The other three areas all saw more significant declines in orders in 2024 with the North-Central-East down by -6%, the North-East at -13% and the South-Central area seeing a fall of -15%.
The US Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) tracks orders for tooling on a similar basis; here the market is moving in the opposite direction, with a modest but steady decline since the peak in May 2024. December is always a low value month for cutting tools because of the holiday season but this was the weakest end to the year since 2021.
Interestingly, the notes accompanying these results suggest that the aerospace sector remained weak at the end of 2024 – in part this reflects the machinists strike at Boeing but the comment points to a lack of a recovery following the ending of the dispute. There is no regional breakdown in the cutting tool press release.
You can download the press releases for the two surveys from the AMT web-site at https://www.amtonline.org/topic/intelligence, with the CTMR release also published on the USCTI web-site at www.uscti.com (go to the News tab); alternatively, you can request either or both releases from MTA and we can make sure you get them when they are published each month. We have attached a set of charts tracking the rolling 12-month totals from these two surveys which you can download below.