According to The Association for Manufacturing Technology, March U.S. machine tool orders totaled $399.83 million, up 30.3% from February’s $306.96 million but down 18.7% when compared with the total of $491.73 million reported for March 2014. With a year-to-date total of $1,052.29 million, 2015 was down 12.7% when compared with 2014.

“There are many indications that our end-user customers are making significant investments in their manufacturing facilities to increase capacity, including GM’s announcement that it will invest billions in its U.S. plants,” said AMT President Douglas K. Woods. “Overall we expect the industry to hold steady with a push-pull between strong domestic investment in manufacturing but a drag on foreign trade due to the dollar’s strength.”

U.S. manufacturing technology orders are also reported on a regional basis for six geographic breakdowns of the U.S.  

Northeast Region 

Northeast Region 2015 year-to-date manufacturing technology orders totaled $222.69 million, 11.8% more than the 2014 total at the same time.

North Central-East Region 

With a March total of $116.75 million, North Central-East Region manufacturing technology orders were 56.1% more than February’s $74.77 million but 41.7% less than the March 2014 total. Year-to-date orders totaled $283.99 million, down 22.9% from the comparable figure for 2014. 

North Central-West Region 

Year-to-date manufacturing technology orders in the North Central-West Region totaled $216.13 million, up 23.9% when compared with 2014 at the same time.

South Central Region 

South Central Region year-to-date manufacturing technology orders for 2015 totaled $84.91 million, down 51.9% from the comparable figure for 2014.