Orders of manufacturing technology, measured by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, totaled $338 million in January 2024, a 31% decline from December and a 3.7% decline from January 2023. The value of orders in January 2024 were at the lowest level for a January since 2021, yet the unit count was the lowest since 2016. This indicates the demand for manufacturing technology is still being driven by orders of highly specialized, automated machinery.

Contract machine shops, the largest customer of manufacturing technology, decreased orders in January 2024 to the lowest level since July 2023, a 27.1% decline from December 2023. These shops have been ordering below their typical share for some time now. Should business conditions improve for these manufacturers, there is a large upside potential for future orders of manufacturing technology.