U.S. manufacturing technology orders increased 8% in March from the previous month to $301.2 million, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders report published by AMT ¨C The Association For Manufacturing Technology. New orders were 29.3% lower than in March 2019. Total orders through March 2020 were $863 million, 26.1% lower than YTD 2019 orders.
¡°We were anticipating an increase in orders from February since many companies¡¯ fiscal years end in March, which typically drives up orders,¡± said Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT. ¡°Yet while orders in the first half of March were fairly robust, order volume decelerated rapidly in the second half of the month as stay-at-home orders were put into place.¡±
Woods continued, ¡°Going forward, we expect April and May orders to be significantly impacted by the inability of salespeople to meet with new prospects and visit customers¡¯ facilities. While videoconferencing is productive in some situations, it cannot effectively substitute for face-to-face meetings with customers
at their facilities. This drop-off in quotations is most visible in the contracting machining sector, which represents nearly a third of the manufacturing technology customer base and is seeing a 70-80% drop in new quotation activity. If this rate of decline is representative of other key sectors, then much of the industry can expect a large drop-off in order volumes in the second and third quarters. Bucking the downward trend are defense, space, and medical equipment ¨C and there are encouraging signs that automotive is slowing scaling back up as well.¡±
