March Surge in Machine-Tool Orders Boosts 1st-Period Total to 7-Year High
Machine-tool producers booked 55% more orders in March than a year earlier, boosting the 1988 first-quarter total to the highest level for any quarter since the 1981-82 recession.</br></br>Brisk buyer-inquiry rates indicate continued good business for at least the remainder of this year, machine-tool builders say.</br></br>Domestic producers of these complex machines, which are used by durable-goods manufacturers to shape metal parts, received $254.4 million of orders in March, up from $164.2 million a year earlier, the National Machine Tool Builders' Association said.</br></br>In the first quarter, orders totaled $850 million, up 83% from the 1987 initial period, the association said, and the highest quarterly total since the $867 million of the second quarter of 1981. Several large General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. orders in January and February contributed to the unusually strong quarter, but demand is broadly based.</br></br>"We had a fantastic March," says Christopher C. Cole, vice president, machine tools for Cincinnati Milacron Inc., the nation's largest producer. "We had strong automotive orders and strong aerospace orders. And our export business is going strong."