Manufacturers and machine shops booked more than $1 billion in new orders for metalworking machinery in September, setting a record for monthly investment, according to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report, released Monday by AMT-The Association for Manufacturing Technology.
The USMTO report tracks new-order values and machine units for metal-cutting and metal-forming machinery nationwide and in six regions. The report serves as an economic indicator for future manufacturing activity, as companies invest to support expected production needs.
September’s numbers were boosted by orders placed during the International Machine Tool Show (IMTS), held September 11-14 in Chicago, and continued an upward trend in machinery investment. The totals marked the seventh straight month of orders exceeding half a billion dollars—the longest streak of investment in the report’s history, according to AMT.
September orders rose 38% compared to August and were up 101.7% from September 2025. The total value of orders placed in 2026 reached $5.76 billion through September—45% above the first three quarters of 2025.
September’s totals were 22.5% above the previous monthly record, set in December 2025.
Orders accelerated across customer industries, including machine shops, aerospace manufacturing, and automotive manufacturing.
AMT calls for elevated activity for the remainer of 2026 and into 2027.
“The resilience of demand in the current expansion, which began in September 2024, can be attributed to the increased appetite for automation, demand from industries with long backlogs and lead times, and defense production, which should be sustained through any downturns in aggregate demand,” AMT researchers wrote. “Even if overall capital investment declines in the near future, the current level of demand for machined parts and heightened levels of capacity utilization could ensure that a good number of leads found at IMTS 2026 will convert into additional orders in the coming months.”
