November 2014 U.S. Cutting Tool Consumption Down

U.S. cutting tool consumption for November 2014 totaled $156.9 million, according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and AMT–The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report (CTMR) collaboration, was down 18.9 percent from October’s total and up 0.4 percent from November 2013.

“Although [November] registered the lowest volume of cutting tool shipments we’ve seen since 2013, this 18.9 percent decrease is in part due to the record-breaking sales we had in October,” says Brad Lawton, chairman of AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group.

The Cutting Tool Market Report is jointly compiled by AMT and USCTI, and provides a monthly statement on U.S. manufacturers’ consumption of cutting tools, the primary consumable in the manufacturing process. According to the organizations, 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.