Machine Tool Orders Rise 22% In First Quarter

Gross new orders of metal-cutting and metal-forming machine tools for U.S. consumption totaled $849.09 million in the first quarter of this year, up 22.2% from new orders of $692.41 million during the first three months of 2005, according to statistics jointly released by AMT-The Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association.

In March, the most recent month for the trade associations have released data, new orders of machine tools for U.S. consumption were $351.65 million, up 27.8% from the $275.05 million worth of orders posted in February. Orders for metal-cutting machine tools were $327.67 million, up 27.9% from February's $256.24 million. Orders for metal-forming machine tools were $23.97 million in March, up 27.5% from $18.8 million in February.