U.S. manufacturers combined to order $605.8 million worth of metalworking machinery in July, an increase of 55.8% compared to the same month last year, according to the latest monthly report from the Association for Manufacturing Technology.
The July total was down 8% compared to June amid a pullback in select industries, including engines, turbines and other power transmission equipment, but other segments showed strong growth, officials noted. Electrical equipment manufacturers benefited from a surge in demand amid new construction — particularly of data centers — while forging and stamping companies posted the highest level of orders since 2012. Contract machine shop orders, meanwhile, are “beginning to outpace the overall market.”
July’s total marked five consecutive months of orders in excess of $500 million — just the second time that has happened since the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report began tracking data in 1998. For the year to date, orders were up 37.1% to just over $4 billion.
Although the value of orders rose by over 50%, the number of units ordered increased by just 13% year over year; analysts attributed that difference primarily to “sustained growth in demand” for automation, rather than to “modest inflationary pressures.”
“Orders of manufacturing technology have already set records in the first half of 2026, and given the historic boost in orders associated with IMTS, the second half of the year could achieve the impossible,” wrote AMT Principal Economist Christopher Chidzik.
