Manufacturing technology orders set half-year record
New orders of metalworking machinery, measured by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, totaled $672.7 million in June, a 15.6% increase from May 2026 and a 56.8% increase over June 2025.
In the first half of 2026, manufacturing technology orders totaled $3.44 billion, a 36.0% increase over the first half of 2025.
The first half of 2026 was the strongest half-year for the value of metalworking machinery orders since USMTO began collecting data in 1998. While the value of orders reached an unprecedented level, the number of machines ordered was 2.6% lower than in the second half of 2025. At least some of these orders were captured in the latest report on U.S. gross domestic product, which showed that, for two quarters in a row, the economy was driven by outsized investment in machinery from business. While a considerable share of that growth comes from AI investments, manufacturing technology is surely an accelerant.
Orders from contract machine shops continued to accelerate throughout the first half of 2026, registering the highest first-half value since 1998. However, the number of units fell by nearly 8% from the second half of 2025. While job shops represent the largest customer segment for manufacturing technology, the amount of machinery they have ordered over the last several years has lagged behind the market as OEMs made the necessary investments to absorb increased production demands internally rather than by contracting with external job shops.
Leading the charge in increasing internal capacity is the aerospace sector, which ordered the most machinery in the first half of 2026 on record, in both value and units. The value of orders in the first half of 2026 was nearly one-third higher than in the latter half of 2025, and units were up by nearly a quarter. As the necessity of the space economy grows, backlogs of commercial aircraft continue to rise, and defense production needs become increasingly urgent as the nation’s munitions stockpile is depleted by the war in Iran.
To alleviate the growing energy demand from newly built AI infrastructure, manufacturers of engines, turbines, and power transmission equipment have been accelerating the pace of their manufacturing technology orders. While the total orders in the first half of 2026 were comparable to the previous three halves, June 2026 orders were more than double the monthly average since January 2000. This outsized activity elevated orders from power generation and distribution manufacturers to 14% above the investments made by the automotive sector in the first half of 2026.
The first half of 2026 featured several headwinds to business investment, such as the outbreak of the war between the United States and Iran, rising inflation, trade-war-accelerated supply challenges, a new Federal Reserve chair with less of a penchant for forward guidance than his predecessors, and a resurgence of tariff uncertainty. Despite these challenges, the manufacturing economy has remained resilient, with measures of industrial production continuing to improve and capacity utilization rates holding steady at elevated levels.
The robust manufacturing economy was put at center stage during AMT’s Summer Economic Forum, where Oxford Economics delivered an updated machine tool order forecast. The improved forecast calls for orders to remain elevated, with an increase of 1.5% in the second half of 2026, bringing total orders for the year to nearly $7 billion. While headwinds mount and uncertainty grows, the manufacturing economy continues to prove its reliability. As IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show approaches, the sky no longer seems to be the limit of where manufacturing technology can go.
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