The latest US orders data from our colleagues at AMT shows continuing growth in the machine tool market, while demand for cutting tools appears to have returned to a positive trend. The 12-month rolling total for machine tool orders was at its highest since the period up to March 2023, while the equivalent figure for cutting tools has been improving since July.
The US Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) programme tracks orders in the US market, based on the reports from participants in the survey. In the first ten months of 2025 (January to October), total machine tool orders were +19.7% above the level in the same period of 2024 and the rolling-annual total +17.5% higher than in the previous 12 months.
The AMT press release notes that the main driver of this improvement is renewed tax incentives and sustained demand for manufactured goods from both consumers and government sources. Orders from “contract machine shops” – this is the largest customer category in the US market – had their highest monthly total since March 2023 with evidence of an increasing adoption of automation among these companies. Other sectors to have had a good month in October were “aerospace” and “engines, turbines & other power transmission manufacturers”.
All but one of the six regions are sharing in this growth – the exception is the North-Central-West area but this is only marginally below the level in the first 10 months of 2024. The growth is led by the South-Central (+46.7%) and West (+45.4%) regions, with the other three seeing significant but not quite as dramatic growth at +16.8% for the South-East, +15.3% for the North-East and +11.8% in the North-Central-East area.
The US Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) tracks orders for tooling on a similar basis, except it uses shipments rather than orders (there is little difference in these measures for tooling). With an exceptionally strong result for October, shipments in the first 10 months of the year were +0.6% higher than in the same months of 2024 (January to October) although, thanks to the weakness in the first half of the year, the 12-month rolling trend is still marginally negative.
The report suggests that the strength of demand in October may be due to some one-off factors but the underlying picture does appear to be cautiously positive. 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.