December U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $446.76 million, according to The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (AMTDA) This total, as reported by companies participating in the United States Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) program, was up 40.9 percent from November and up 104.8 percent when compared with the total of $218.16 million reported for December 2009.  With a year-to-date total of $3,236.00 million, 2010 is up 85.3 percent compared with 2009. These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.

"For the first time in USMTC history, we experienced four months of consecutive growth following IMTS, ending the year on a solid upswing," said Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT. "2010 orders closed strong, up 85 percent over 2009, and December's orders were 40.9 percent higher than the previous month. With backlogs firming and quotation levels accelerating, we are very optimistic that the industry will see strong results in 2011."

The USMTC report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.  Analysis of manufacturing technology consumption provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity.