January U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $308.73 million, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors’Association and the Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 26.1% from December, and down 4.0% from the total of $321.50 million reported for January 2007.

These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.

Despite the publicized concerns about the U.S. economy, we anticipate that first quarter machine tool consumption numbers will improve as manufacturers start to implement 2008 capital budgets and use the potential savings available from the new economic …