Machine Tool Orders Grow More Than 50% for Second Month

According to the United States Machine Tool Orders (USMTO) report published by the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT, McLean, Virginia), May machine tool orders were 2,402 units and $440,472,000.

Unit orders in May increased 53.0% compared with one year ago, which was the second consecutive month that unit orders increased more than 50%. May was the eighth month of growth in the last nine months. Of course, this fast growth rate, which was comparable to an IMTS month, was, in large part, due to an easy comparison with April 2020. On the other hand, this was the third highest unit order total for May since USMTO began in 1996. Therefore, May 2021 was an extremely strong month for machine tool orders. As a result, the annual rate of change grew at an accelerating rate for the third straight month to 13.6%, which was the fastest rate of growth since October 2018.

In May, real dollar orders increased 95.2%. This was the fastest rate of growth since May 2011. The annual rate of change in dollar orders grew 11.4% in April, which was the second straight month of annual growth and the fastest growth since February 2019. 

The North-Central West region is clearly leading the recovery in the machine tool industry. Unit orders grew 134.2% in May, and unit orders grew more than 74% each of the last four months. Meanwhile, dollar orders grew 179.2% in May, and dollar orders grew more than 105% in three of the last four months.

Compared with one year ago, the GBI: Metalworking was 49.1% higher, which was the 11^th consecutive month of growth. The annual rate of change in the GBI grew 20.9% in June, which was the fourth straight month of accelerating growth. The strong growth in the metalworking industry should lead to accelerating growth in machine tool orders throughout 2021.