Analysis of U.S. Metalworking Machines in the First Quarter of 2012

According to the statistics of the American Manufacturing Technology Association (AMT), in March 2012, the U.S. metal processing machine tool orders amounted to 496 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%, a year-on-year increase of 35.2%, and a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%; the order volume was 2429 units, a year-on-year increase of 10.1. %, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%.

In March, orders for metal-cutting machine tools were US$459 million, a 12.2% increase from the previous quarter and a 2.1% year-on-year decrease. Orders for metal forming and processing machines were US$37.47 million, an increase of 1.5% from the previous quarter and a year-on-year increase of 1.8%. In March, the number of orders for metal-cutting machine tools was 2,304 units, an increase of 10.5% from the previous period and a year-on-year increase of 14.5%; the number of orders for metal forming and processing machines was 125 units, an increase of 3.3% from the previous period and a year-on-year decrease of 14.4%.

From March 2011 to March 2012, the amount of orders for metal processing machine tools in the United States amounted to 1.357 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%, and the number of orders was 6,601, a year-on-year decrease of 3.0%. Among them, metal cutting machine tool orders 1.256 billion US dollars, an increase of 12.9%, orders 6238 units, down 2.3%; metal forming and processing machine tool orders 1.01 billion US dollars, an increase of 12.5%, orders 363 units, down 13.4%.

In the first quarter, the total value of US metal processing machine tools exports was US$600 million, a year-on-year decrease of 3.9%; total imports were US$1.45 billion, up 73.1% year-on-year; and the trade deficit was US$850 million, a year-on-year increase of 297.5%.

From January 2011 to March 2012, the trend of U.S. metal processing machine tool import and export changes Since 2011, the gap between U.S. metal processing machine tool trade imports and exports has increased, indicating that U.S. manufacturing is gradually recovering, since 2012. Since the beginning of the month, the trade deficit has gradually declined, and exports have slowly increased. The competitiveness of the U.S. metal processing machine tool industry has started to increase.

In the first quarter, U.S. metal cutting machine tools exported 380 million U.S. dollars, down 8.2% year-on-year; metal forming machine tools exported 220 million U.S. dollars, up 4.7% year-on-year; CNC machine tools exported 250 million U.S. dollars, down 12.2% year-on-year; other technologies exported 2.23 billion U.S. dollars, up year-on-year. Declined by 4.1%.

During the same period, the US imported metal cutting machine tools imported US$1.2 billion, an increase of 79.0%; metal forming machine tools imported US$250 million, an increase of 49.8%; CNC machine tool imports were US$1.05 billion, an increase of 79.5%; other technologies were imported 2.97 billion US dollars, year-on-year growth. 5.2%.

Most of the deficits in the U.S. metalworking machine tool trade still come from metal-cutting machine tools. In the first quarter, it reached US$8.1 billion, an increase of 223.4% year-on-year; however, the trade deficit from metal forming machine tools began to increase, with a month-on-month increase of 1,387.7% in March. The year-on-year surplus of $37.6 million changed to a deficit of $37.2 million; the numerically-controlled machine tool deficit was $800 million, which represented a year-on-year increase of 166.9%; and other manufacturing technologies had a deficit of $730 million, which represented an increase of 48.8% year-on-year.