Orders for machine tools rose 7.7 percent in April from the month before, posting the fourth monthly increase in the last five months, an industry survey said.
Orders from U.S. companies for domestic and foreign-produced machine tools rose to an estimated $801 million in April from a revised $744 million in March, said a joint report from the Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors Association.
Previously, the industry groups reported that estimated orders rose 9.3 percent in March to $721 million. Orders totaled an estimated $659 million in February.
For the year to date, estimated orders rose 22 percent to 2.7 billion. Estimated April orders were 61 percent higher than the $497 million reported in April 1996.
“The significant growth in demand reflected in April orders may be an early indicator that Detroit is beginning to place orders with our industry again,” said Albert W. Moore, association president.
For several months earlier this year, machine tool makers saw weakening demand from the auto industry, one of their biggest customers.
Machine tools are used to shape and assemble metal in products ranging from diesel engines to dishwashers. Analysts watch their sales to gauge industrial output, consumer demand, and business investment.
Today’s report is in line with a government report on overall orders to U.S. factories for durable goods, a broader category than machine tool orders. In April, orders for big-ticket goods rose 1.4 percent, the Commerce Department said.
The Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors Association each month estimate U.S. machine tool consumption based on the actual number of orders placed by selected American manufacturers with U.S. and foreign companies. The estimates are designed to give a more complete picture of the industry than by actual orders, because not all companies report their activity to the trade associations.
Actual machine tool orders rose 7.7 percent in April to $584.51 million from a revised $542.66 million in March, the industry groups said.
April machine tool orders jumped 24.2 percent in the Midwest, which accounts for more than half of all orders.
