Manufacturing Technology Orders Top $5.9 Billion in Record Breaking Year

There are bright shoots for American manufacturing as investment by domestic producers in machine tools and equipment reached record levels in 2021.

Orders for manufacturing technology reached more than $5.9 billion in 2021, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT). This was the highest level ever recorded and a marked increase from the 2020 annual total of $3.8 billion.

“After five straight months of historically high orders, it is difficult to describe 2021 as anything other than exceptional,” said Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT, in a press release about the report. “Since 1998 one-quarter of all months exceeding $500 million are now in 2021.”

The past two years have been challenging for manufacturers due to rapid and unpredictable fluctuations in consumer demand, operational challenges related to social distancing, and ongoing supply chain disruption caused by a whole host of factors.

“In addition to demand from changing consumer behavior, reshoring and supply-chain diversification drove demand for manufacturing technology orders in December,” added Woods. But, he cautioned, continuing backlogs, labor shortages and supply chain challenges are expected to remain a drag on industry growth for the first part of 2022.

The analysis provides data on regional and national US orders of machine tools and related equipment. AMT says that manufacturing technology orders are a sign that manufacturers are investing in improvements to capacity and productivity and are, therefore, a useful leading economic indicator.