U.S. Cutting Tool Consumption Down 16.6% in November

According to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (Cleveland, OH) and AMT-The Association For Manufacturing Technology (McLean, VA), November U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $156 million. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) collaboration, was down 16.6 percent from October’s total and down 7.0 percent from November 2012.

Year-to-date shipments are $1.88 billion, which is down 3.9 percent from the same period in 2012. The totals here represent about 80 percent of the U.S. market for cutting tools.

“The month-to-month comparison for November suffered in part due to strong sales in October,” said Brad Lawton, chairman of AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group. “The year-to-date comparison to 2012 shows a much more modest decline and was also fairly consistent from April or May through November, something anyone doing a forecast should appreciate.”