According to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, orders for manufacturing technology totaled $460.7 million in August 2022. Up 16.3% from July 2022 but down 14.5% from August 2021, total orders year-to-date for 2022 have reached $3.69 billion, a 5.3% increase year-over-year.
“July and August are typically slower, particularly in the months prior to IMTS in Chicago, the largest manufacturing technology show in the Americas. This increase in order activity was unexpected. While orders are returning to the typical seasonal patterns we expect, they are doing so at a very elevated level," says McGibbon.
“From what I heard on the show floor, this year was maybe one of the best in over 40 years for selling machines right off the floor."
“Given the success of 2021, I would have expected it to take IMTS to bring the year-over-year numbers back to positive, but finishing August over 5% above last year really bodes well for a stronger-than-expected end to the year.”
McGibbon says that despite these positive signs, the industry still has a challenge heading into the last quarter of the year with supply chain pressures not easing up anytime soon. He states that durable good components have steadily increased since September 2020 while certain bottlenecks are stagnating machine deliveries.
However, even due to these bottlenecks, they're not seeing any significant increase in cancellations but they are predicting that long lead times in tandem with the likely economic slowdown will pose a threat to order activity through the first half of 2023.
