Machine Tool Orders Drop 4.2% in January

Machine tool orders fell 4.2% in January to $197.6 million, the National Machine Tool Builders’ Assn. said Sunday in its monthly report.

Orders for the industrial tools totaled $206.3 million in December.

The association said machine tool shipments fell 40.9% last month to $224.1 million from $379.4 million in December. The decline was in part a reflection of the normal seasonal year-end surge in shipments.

“Machine tool activity in January was in line with that of recent months,” association president Albert W. Moore said.

Machine tool orders fell 14.4% from January, 1989, but shipments rose 47.2%. Machine tools, such as lathes, make the machines that produce sophisticated weapons and other manufactured goods.

Moore said although many economists predict a slowdown in the U.S economy, several trends independent of the business cycle point to potential demand for machine tools.

They include high backlogs in the aerospace sector, the need to replace farm machinery and the increasingly urgent need to “rebuild much of our nation’s aging infrastructure,” he said.

The trade group reported that the machine tool order backlog for January was $1.78 billion, compared to $1.80 billion in December and $2.27 billion in January, 1989.

Metal-cutting machine tool orders fell 11.1% to $140.9 million in January and were down 15.6% from a year ago. Metal-cutting equipment shipments fell 48.1% to $162.25 million but rose 57.8% from a year ago.

The association said metal-forming orders rose 18.7% to $56.70 million but were off 11.2% from January, 1989.

Metal-forming shipments dropped 7.1% in January to $61.9 million but rose 25.3% from the year-ago period.