June cutting tool consumption improved from May
June 2020 U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $150.6 million, up 10.1 percent from May's $136.8 million.
However, according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, the June total was down 24.6 percent from the $199.7 million reported for June 2019. With a year-to-date total of $1 billion, 2020 is down 19.7 percent compared with June 2019.
“Consistent with recent reports on other industrial activity, the cutting tool industry rebounded somewhat in June. We still have a long way to go to return to activity levels that preceded the pandemic shutdown, but we appear to be headed in the right direction,” said Bret Tayne, president of USCTI.
Costikyan Jarvis, president of Jarvis Cutting Tools, said the June results provide some hope that the worst of the contraction is behind us. "With all the challenges that we faced, having a June number that is both a 10 percent improvement over May and a 5 percent improvement over April is a good sign," he said.
Jarvis added that the automotive and commercial aerospace industries, the two largest users of cutting tools, stopped producing for many weeks. "In previous recessions, production has never gone down to zero; the implications of this are not yet understood. These industries have supply chains that are international and complex, and it is unclear if their supply chains have fully recovered. In addition to a drop in demand, customers are also talking about seeing significant de-inventorying in the supply chain. It will take several more months for everyone to understand both the shape of the recovery and how these industries adjust to the post-COVID world," he said.
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