DaveB wrote in message ...
On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 18:00:27 -0500, Cliff wrote:

No gloom in this report:

http://www.sme.org/gmn/mag/2005/05jam002/05jam002.html

Regards


Daveb

There never is. g SME and AMTDA use the same data, but SME's reported
figures for the last four years or so have lagged those of the AMTDA.

The YTD and moving-average figures look good overall. But the last few
months of last year appear to have fallen off. Here's what AMTDA says:

"November U.S. machine tool consumption totaled $245.04 million, according
to AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, and AMT - The
Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by
companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 2.5% from October and
down 6.9% from the total of $263.17 million reported for November 2004. With
a year-to-date total of $2,766.59 million, 2005 was up 8.3% compared with
2004."

http://www.amtda.org/usmtc/index.htm

I'd look at the moving averages more than the current-month, and those
numbers seem to reflect a boost in defense-related spending. You'd have to
look at Commerce Dept. figures to see what segments are up and down, to see
if there's broad-based strength in the parts market.

--
Ed Huntress