Shipments of cutting tools, measured by the Cutting Tool Market Report compiled in a collaboration between AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology and the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI), totaled $212.8 million in April 2025. Orders increased 2.7% from March 2025 but were down 2.8% from April 2024. Year-to-date shipments totaled $818.3 million, a drop of 5.1% from the same period in 2024.

“Tariff negotiations change every week without clear direction, stagnating key market segments for our products,” said Steve Boyer, president of USCTI. “Industries like aerospace and automotive, which are heavy users of our products, have been lagging due to uncertainty regarding raw materials, inventories, and acquisition costs of components for assembly. The uncertainties have led to declines in year-over-year orders and delayed what most of us expected would be a considerable uptick for the first half of this year. Gaining traction in the second half of 2025 will be significantly impacted by the speed at which clarity is gained, and manufacturing can be ramped up once that’s achieved.”

Steve Stokey, executive vice president and owner of Allied Machine and Engineering, said: “2025 did not get off to the strong start we experienced in 2024. Recent forecasts have pushed growth out to the third quarter. With clarity on tariffs beginning to take shape and the expectation that Congress and the president will pass the “Big Beautiful Bill,” businesses will have a clearer picture of the playing field for the second half of 2025. If the forecasters are right, the stars should align, and the numbers will turn upward in the second half of the year.”

The Cutting Tool Market Report is jointly compiled by AMT and USCTI, two trade associations representing the development, production, and distribution of cutting tool technology and products. It provides a monthly statement on U.S. manufacturers’ consumption of the primary consumable in the manufacturing process, the cutting tool. Analysis of cutting tool consumption is a leading indicator of both upturns and downturns in U.S. manufacturing activity, as it is a true measure of actual production levels.

For more information, visit amtonline.org.