Domestic manufacturers’ and machine shops’ August new cutting tool purchases fell 2.7% from July, the second-consecutive month of decline for the Cutting Tool Market Report, issued by the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute and AMT – the Association for Manufacturing Technology and based on actual sales figures reported by participating cutting tool suppliers. The latest result also represents an annual decline, down 3.0% from August 2013.

According to the two sponsoring associations, the CTMR functions as an indicator of “upturns and downturns” in U.S. manufacturing activity, measuring as it does the actual level of production by operations that produce and consume machine parts.

The sources indicate the reports totals represent about 80% of the total U.S. market for cutting tools.

As such, the up-and-down of monthly activity is consistent with domestic manufacturing activity during the current year.

“August has traditionally been a period of slower sales for the cutting tool industry due to summer holidays and automotive model change-overs,” stated USCTI president Tom Haag. “The three-month rolling average actually shows the sales as fairly steady throughout the summer.

“The third quarter should close much stronger with September bringing the industry back to full speed and the IMTS exhibition driving new interest with record attendance,” Haag continued.

The biannual International Manufacturing Technology Show often results in historic spikes in sales of machine tools and related technology. Manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors of machine tools, cutting tools, and related tools are anticipating a similar effect following IMTS 2014, which drew 114,147 during its five-day run in mid-September.