According to the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, the order intake for metalworking machines amounted to a total of $387.3 million in July 2025. This represents a decrease of 9.5% compared to June 2025, but an increase of 20.1% compared to July 2024. Machine orders totaled $2.91 billion by July 2025, which is an increase of 14.4% compared to the first seven months of 2024.
The order value in July 2025 is almost 20% above what would be expected in July of an average year. This strong July led to the first increase in total value compared to the previous year since April 2025. Despite the strong development of the order value, the number of ordered units remains unchanged, as the number of units ordered in July 2025 was more than 13% below the average value for July. Since there is no widespread inflation in machine tools, this trend underscores the ongoing importance of automation for current purchasing trends.
- Orders for machines from contract manufacturers decreased by almost 14% in July 2025 compared to June and increased by nearly 10% compared to July 2024, which represents a significant decline compared to the overall market. While this trend is not unusual, it shows early signs of weakness in orders from the largest customer segment, which had otherwise shown signs of recovery for much of 2025.
- Order intake for machines from agricultural machinery manufacturers has been declining since April 2025. The machinery investments in this sector and its supply chain could see a sudden increase in the coming months after John Deere announced additional investments in its U.S. operations for the next decade.
Despite widespread expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will lower interest rates at its September meeting, recent forecasts continue to predict a weakening of the industrial economy in the second half of the year, which could lead to a decline in investments in capital goods. The MTForecast Conference 2025 by AMT, taking place from October 15 to 17 in Schaumburg, Illinois, will address the likelihood of a downturn and explore which industries may still offer opportunities by 2026.
Source: AMT
