WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two leading manufacturing groups report that manufacturing is recovering nationwide. However, according to the president of the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), a credit squeeze for manufacturers is severely hampering more robust growth.According to AMT President Douglas K. Woods: "Manufacturing technology orders started off 2010 up 22 percent [year over year] through February, showing that the market has turned and is slowly recovering from the worst single-year downturn in our industry's history."
Nevertheless, Woods adds, "That increase could be twice as large if banks would ease credit restrictions. Our banks have a tenth of our GDP and nearly 24 times the required reserve in the Federal Depository when that money should be working to rebuild America."
In February, U.S. manufacturing technology consumption (USTMC) totaled $163.96 million, according to AMT the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (AMTDA). This total, reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was up 28.8 percent from January and up 22.1 percent from the total of $134.34 million reported for February 2009. With a year-to-date total of $291.27 million, 2010 is up 22.3 percent over 2009.
The Technology Consumption (USMTC) report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations, represents the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, and provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.
Growth in the Northeast region lagged the national numbers, not surprisingly. Manufacturing technology consumption in February rose to $26.64 million, up only 6.1 percent compared with January's $25.11 million - but it actually declined 3.1 percent from February 2009. The year-to-date total of $51.75 million was up 9.6 percent over the same period of 2009.
The South did not rise again in February, with manufacturing technology consumption in the Southern region of $19.0 million, down one-third (33.2 percent) from the $28.42 million total for January and off 11.0 percent compared to February 2009. The $47.42 million year-to-date total, however, is 32.1 percent above the same period in 2009.
The Midwest showed solid gains with a total of $43.06 million in February, 19.7 percent higher than January's $35.96 million and up 9.0 percent compared with last February. The year-to-date total of $79.02 million was 16.2 percent above the comparable 2009 figure.
By contrast, the Central and Western regions posted outstanding results. The Central region's $53.20 million in February was up 102.1 from January's $26.32 million and 76.6 percent higher than the total for February 2009. At $79.52 million, 2010 year-to-date was up 42.8 percent compared with last year at the same time.
The Western region's $22.07 million represented a 91.9-percent increase from January's $11.50 million, and was up 39.1 percent compared with February a year ago. The $33.57 million year-to-date total was 7.3 percent above the 2009 total for the same period.
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