Sales of machine tools and related products dropped 21.0% in the most recent monthly report, from $511.15 million in March to $396.92 million in April, though AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology and AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Assn. emphasized that the year-to-date sales for manufacturing technology continues to show remarkable strength versus 2010.

Four-month sales of machine tools and other products now amount to nearly $1.6 billion, up 105% over the January-April 2010 period.

“It is very encouraging to see year-to-date orders more than double last year’s pace particularly with the price of oil, unrest in the Middle East, and the disasters in Japan,” stated AMT president Douglas K. Woods. “Despite April’s numbers being slightly lower than March, recent levels of outstanding order ac-tivity are now approaching pre-recession levels which is a positive long-term indicator for our industry.”

AMT and AMTDA conduct the monthly U.S. Manufacturing Technology Consumption report among par-ticipating companies to track national and regional consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment. The figures in the report are based on actual data.

In the regional reports, the USMTC found Northeastern manufacturing technology consumption de-clined 24.8% during April, to $58.26 million from $77.43 million during March. The region’s sales increased 61.9% over the April 2010 total, however, and its year-to-date total of $240.64 million is 93.3% above the four-month total for 2010.

The Southern region reported machine tools and related products’ sales of $51.3 million during April, an improvement of 12.8% from $45.47 million in sales during March, 61.2% better than the April 2010 sales. Year-to-date sales in the South stand at $184.93 million, a 49.7% improvement over January-April sales.

In the Midwest sales of manufacturing technology equipment and products fell by 39.5%, from $205.64 million in March to $124.34 in April, though the recent figure is a 117.4% improvement on April 2010’s fig-ure. And, the region’s April results bring the year-to-date total to $554.39 million, 156.7% more than the total for the January-April 2010 period.

The Central region posted sales of $120.77 million in sales of machine tool equipment and products during April, down 5.0% from March’s $127.14 million but up 64.0% over the April 2010 total. January-April 2011 has totaled $456.34 million in sales for the Central region, 112.6% above the comparable period in 2010. Finally, the Western region had manufacturing technology consumption totaling $42.25 million during April, a drop of 10.1% from March’s $47.01 million total, though still 49.1% higher than the April 2010 result. For the year-to-date, the West has posted $159.68 million in sales, up 61.5% compared with January-April 2010.