Metalworking Machinery Manufacturers NAICS 3335

Sep 20, 2025 - Metalworking Activity Picks Up

• The Gardner Business Index (GBI), which measures the current state of metalworking and machining activity, rose 0.7-points in August from July to 49.0, Gardner Intelligence reports. While a 49 reading indicates contraction (above 50 signals expansion), the progress toward expansion is cause for cautious optimism, according to the report. Production and new orders saw the biggest single-month increases, followed by backlogs, indicating shops are staying busy and may continue to be. Moreover, three-month averages for all components except exports improved on results from August 2024. The GBI Futures Index, an indicator of the future state of the metalworking market (and future demand for metalworking machinery), added several points in August for a three-month average of 62.1, higher than any August reading of the last three years, indicating that shops continue to be optimistic about business conditions.
• Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the US have a direct impact on small fabricators’ cost structures, bidding strategies, and overall competitiveness, according to Exiil, a provider of software to metal manufacturers. In March, President Trump raised steel and aluminum import tariffs to the US by 25% (since doubled to 50%), ending all country exemptions, in addition to hiking tariffs on China, according to Reuters. Russian aluminum imports carry a tariff of 200%. Beyond raw metal, the US has increasingly added “downstream” or “derivative” products – such as stamped parts, fasteners, tubing, wire, or other items with high steel/aluminum content – to existing Section 232 tariffs. As a result, metal fabricators face higher materials costs. Even businesses that source metals domestically are likely to pay more for metal as US mills often raise their prices when foreign competitors’ costs go up – because the “floor” of the market shifts.

• Shop class is being retooled to teach today’s students the technical skills required to fill the manufacturing labor gap, which could swell to 3.8 million workers by 2033, according to a report from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute. Leading-edge school districts are investing tens of millions of dollars to update and expand high-school shop classes for the 21st century, The Wall Street Journal reports. Vocational classes are preparing students for careers in the trades by working with wood, metals, and machinery as hands-on skills stage a comeback amid high college costs and AI’s threat to white collar job. Cutting-edge facilities – outfitted with computer-controlled machine tools and robotic arms – are attracting students at a suburban high school in Wisconsin, where about a quarter of its 2,300 students have signed up for at least one of the courses in construction, manufacturing, or woodworking, WSJ reports.
• Producer prices for metalworking machinery manufacturers rose 3.6% in August compared to a year ago, after rising 4.2% in the previous August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Industry producer prices were at a record high in August, extending a steep and steady climb that kicked off in 2021. Employment by metalworking machinery manufacturers shrank 2.5% year over year in July, while average industry wages rose 9.9% over the same period to a new high of $29.61 per hour, BLS data show. Employment by the industry is contracting amid declining new orders and shipments earlier in the year, Census Bureau data shows.