U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $156.1 million in September, according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and The Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT). This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report collaboration, was down 20.5% when compared with the $196.3 million reported for September 2019 but up 14.7% from August’s $136.1 million. With a year-to-date total of $1.4 billion, 2020 is down 23.1% when compared with the first nine months of 2019.

According to Brad Lawton, chairman of AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group, “Great, we have seen an improvement of sales numbers, which is a whisper to reduce the uncertainty from the 2020 year of trauma. The cutting tool industry will recover, but we all know it will take time and we must be patient. Stay focused and we will see the numbers continue to improve.”

Added Chris Kaiser, president and CEO of Big Kaiser Precision Tooling: “The year-over-year and year-to-date percentages seem to be correcting in the right direction as of September 2020. Back in April, the ‘doom and gloom’ forecast showed the year ending down 40% and fortunately that does not seem to be the case. Many of us in the cutting tool industry also watch the machine tool orders and those numbers improved in the recent month as well. At this point we are optimistic about the fourth quarter. We are not counting on a large Christmas present but just looking for some steadiness in the market and no further shutdowns.”