U.S. manufacturing technology consumption for the month of August totaled $129.16 million, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association.

This total was down 14.8 percent from July and down 63.3 percent from the total of $351.66 million reported for August 2008. With a year-to-date total of $1.4 billion, 2009 is down 67.7 percent compared with 2008.

“We are cautiously optimistic that manufacturing has hit bottom and will begin to move forward,” said Douglas K. Woods, AMT president. “But it’s going to take time before technology providers feel the impact in their backlogs.”

U.S. manufacturing technology consumption was also reported on a regional basis for five geographic breakdowns of the United States.

At $24.25 million, August manufacturing technology consumption in the Northeast U.S. was up 12.3 percent compared with July’s $21.60 million, but down 52.1 percent when compared with August a year ago. The year-to-date total of $200.63 million is 56.3 percent less than the 2008 total at the same time.

Southern region manufacturing technology consumption in August rose to $23.59 million, 8.1 percent higher than July’s $21.82 million but down 32.5 percent when compared with August 2008. With a year-to-date total of $152.26 million, 2009 is down 68.9 percent when compared with 2008 at the same time.

August manufacturing technology consumption in the Midwest region totaled $33.33 million, 15.3 percent less than the $39.35 million tally for July and off 75.4 percent when compared with August a year ago. The $288.70 million year-to-date total is down 73.5 percent when compared with the same period in 2008.

With a total of $30.58 million, Central U.S. manufacturing technology consumption in August was down 39.9 percent from July’s $50.87 million, and 65.2 percent below the August 2008 total.  At $257.62 million, the 2009 year-to-date total is off 67.7 percent when compared with last year at the same time.

At $17.41 million, August manufacturing technology consumption in the Western region was 2.6 percent less than July’s $17.87 million and 59.2 percent less than the total for August a year ago. The $142.36 million total so far is 63.1 percent below the 2008 total at the same time.