Data published by AMT shows that orders for machine tools during the nine months to September 2025 were +18% higher than the same period in 2024. On the same basis, demand for cutting tools declined by -1%.
The US Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) programme tracks orders in the US market, based on survey responses. Survey responses in this period valued machine tool orders during the first three quarters of 2025 at $3933 million, with the cutting tool business at $1881 million.
Machine tool orders in September 2025 were higher than all other September orders recorded since 2022. The 12-month rolling total – effectively an annualised figure – also improved and was at its highest since April 2023.
Regionally, five areas had YTD orders higher than in the first three quarters of 2024; this growth was led by the South-Central (+48%) and West (+41%), with strong growth also recorded in the South-East (+16%) and North-Central-East (+13%). More modest growth was recorded in the North-East (+6%), leaving the North-Central-West (-0.4%) as the only area in negative territory.
The US Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) tracks shipments for tooling on a similar basis to the machine tool survey. While this part of the market had been trending downwards, the rolling 12-month total has shown an uptick in the third quarter of 2025.
Although demand shows budding momentum, US cutting tool market sentiment remains cautious as unstable business conditions, higher input costs and tariff-driven price increases persist.
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.