Our colleagues at AMT report that orders for machine tools in the US market were +10% higher than in January and +27% higher than a year earlier; across the first two months of the year, demand is +26% higher than in the same period in 2025. The cutting tools market is also improving with February orders +2% up on January, +13% higher than a year ago; the year-to-date trend stands at +11%.
The US Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) programme tracks orders in the US market and reports the totals from participants in the survey. This had an exceptional month in December but the positive trend appears to have continued into the new year with another strong month in February. The 12-month rolling total up to and including February 2026 is +25% higher than the period which ended in February 2025.
The AMT report on these results notes that contract machine shops, the largest customer of manufacturing technology, increased their value of orders by more than a quarter over the first two months of 2026, although there was a more modest increase in the number of units which suggests a move to more automation and higher levels of technology in the purchases by this type of company.
In contrast, manufacturers of aerospace equipment tend to have outsized order values compared to the number of units ordered because of the highly specialized operations required in their processes. In the first two months of 2026, aerospace orders were +233% above 2025 but unit numbers only grew by +125%.
The regional breakdown of the year-to-date figures for the first two months of 2026 shows a fall in orders of -5% in the North-East but the other areas all saw significant growth; this ranged from +17% in the North-Central-East and +19% in the South-East, through +25% in the South-Central region, up to +41% in the North-Central-West and +54% in the West – note that thanks to this growth, the West now has the highest value, overtaking the North-Central-East area.
The US Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) tracks shipments/orders (they switch between these terms in the report) for tooling on a similar basis to the USMTO programme. Demand in this part of the market is also on an upward trend, although not quite at the same pace as machine tool demand. We have noted most of the figures in the introduction paragraph but need to add that the 12-month rolling total value in the period to February 2026 is +11% higher than a year earlier. 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.