October Machine Tool Orders Contract

In October, machine tool orders were 1,864 units and $312,386,000. After a strong IMTS, order totals fell back to the August level. But, this was still higher most months in 2016.

Compared with one year ago, unit orders were down 13.9 percent, which was the sfirst month of contraction since July. While the annual rate of change contracted for the 14th month in a row, the last two months have had the slowest contraction since unit orders began contracting in September 2015. 

Real dollar sales were down 3.6 percent compared with October 2015. Again, this was the first time since July that dollar orders contracted. The annual rate of change contracted for the 17th month in a row, but the rate of change decelerated for the third consecutive month. Also, this was the slowest rate of contraction since August 2015.