New orders of metalworking machinery, measured by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, totaled $515.8 million in March 2025, the highest monthly value since March 2023. March 2025 orders increased 33.8% from February 2025 and were up 20.5% from March 2024. Through the first quarter of the year, orders totaled $1.26 billion, a 12.4% increase over the first quarter of 2024.

Even with a massive increase of private investment in equipment in the first quarter of 2025, orders of manufacturing technology fell by 5.7% from the previous quarter. However, the decline was not significant enough to derail the upward momentum of the industry that began with IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show in September 2024.

•    After driving growth in the machinery market over the past several months, orders from contract machine shops underperformed the overall market movements in March 2025. When demand increases for goods and equipment that require machined parts, contract machine shops generally experience capacity constraints as OEMs shift more work toward them and weigh how to handle changing demand over longer time horizons. Meeting this immediate need by the smaller shops requires additional investment in machinery.

•    Aerospace manufacturers increased their orders in March 2025 to the highest monthly value on record and the most units ordered since December 2023. In February 2025, the capacity utilization rate of aerospace manufacturers surpassed the level observed before the Boeing machinists strike for the first time since the end of the strike in November 2024. While the industry is positioned to continue its upward trajectory, the current strike of machinists could be another short-term drag on growth.

The first quarter of 2025 showed strong signs that demand for manufacturing technology was beginning to recover after two years of mild decline. Increasing uncertainty and downside risks to the economy could upend the positive path of manufacturing technology orders. After forecasting robust growth in 2025, Oxford Economics recently revised its outlook to a high single-digit decline, as economic conditions could push the recovery in machinery demand to the latter half of 2026.

For more information, visit amtonline.org.