July U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $506.97 million according to AMTDA, the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, and AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology.

This total was up 7.3% from June and up 92.7% when compared with the total of $263.14 million reported for July 2010.

With a year-to-date total of $2,975.10 million, 2011 is up 102.9% compared with 2010.

"The manufacturing beat goes on! Machine tool sales continue to exceed forecasts for 2011," said Peter Borden, AMTDA president. "The stock market's volatility and the traditional summer slowdowns as budgets are depleted were no match for the ongoing demand to get new machines into production as soon as possible. This pace will slow; but for USMTO 2011 so far, there are no signs of what we hear on the nightly news."

On a regional basis sales in the Northeast region were $58.38 million, down 17.9% compared with the $71.08 million total for June but up 11.3% when compared with July a year ago. The year-to-date total of $434.97 million is 63.6% more than the comparable figure for 2010.

Orders in the Southern region totaled $75.03 million, 13.4% more than June’s $66.19 million and 191.3% more than the July 2010 total. With a year-to-date total of $381.76 million, 2011 is up 79.6% when compared with 2010 at the same time.

Midwest Region manufacturing technology orders in July stood at $159.26 million, 1.0% more than the June total of $157.62 million and up 70.2% when compared with last July. At $1,016.66 million, the 2011 year-to-date total is 138.5% more than the comparable figure for 2010.

In the Central region sales totaled $106.98 million, down 15.2% from June’s $126.14 million but up 75.7% when compared with the July 2010 figure. The $786.57 million year-to-date total is 103.6% higher than the total for the same period in 2010.