New orders of manufacturing technology totaled $460.7 million in August, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. August 2022 orders were up 16.3 percent from July 2022 but down 14.5 percent from August 2021. Total orders in 2022 reached $3.69 billion through August, a 5.3 percent increase over the first eight months of 2021.

“This is the first increase since March 2022 and the highest order level since April,” said Pat McGibbon, Chief Knowledge Officer at AMT. “As we pointed out in the last release, 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.

“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 percent above last year really bodes well for a stronger-than-expected end to the year,” said 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.”

“Despite the positive signs, the last quarter of the year will present a challenge for the industry. Easing of supply chain pressures is not happening symmetrically. Inventories of durable goods components have been increasing steadily since September 2020, while certain supply bottlenecks are holding up the delivery of machines already ordered. We haven’t begun to see any significant increase in cancellations, but long lead times coupled with a potential economic slowdown could pose a threat to sustained order activity in the last quarter of 2022 and into the first half of 2023."