Inaugural Cutting Tool Market Report Shows Modest Upswing

AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology has partnered with the United States Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) to produce a monthly summary of the market for cutting tools. Because tooling needs to be replaced relatively frequently, trends in U.S. cutting tool shipments are a good measure of overall manufacturing activity and can be a leading indicator of both upturns and downturns, according to the organizations.

The two organizations each collect monthly statistics on cutting tool manufacturers’ shipments and have combined their overall sales figures into the Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) to be released each month. All data in the report is based on the totals actually reported by the companies participating in the CMTR program. According to the two organizations, the totals represent about 80 percent of the U.S. market for cutting tools. Although the first CTMR was released in August, historical data is available for the program dating back to January 2012.

The inaugural Cutting Tool Market Report found that June 2013 U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $155 million. This total was down 6.6 percent from May and down 12.8 percent from the June 2012 level of $195 million. The reported year-to-date total through June 2013 was $1,014 million, down 8.2 percent from shipments levels for the same period in 2012.

“We didn’t expect the first half softness of 2013 as recent activity was at some of the best levels since 1998,” said Dave Povich, USCTI’s president. “What is promising is that the first half of the year outpaced the second half of 2012 and we believe manufacturing is on a modest upswing for the remainder of 2013.”

United States Cutting Tool Institute, call 216-241-7333 or visit uscti.com.