April’s Machine Tool Consumption Down

April’s U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $97.04 million, down 41.5% from March and off by 77.7% from a year ago, American Machinist reports.

The data, which comes from the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA), paints an even bleaker picture: with a year-to-date total of $497.40 million, 2009 is down 70.7% from 2008.

While each of the five geographic regions of the U.S. industrial base reported lower totals from as recently as March, no area was hit harder than the Midwest. According to the AMT and AMTDA report, April manufacturing technology consumption in the Midwest Region total was 41.9% less than that of March and off by 81.7% from last April.