So often it seems that as America goes, so goes Canada. Despite the ability of Canadian manufacturers to weather the recent economic storms, like it or not, inevitably they must still look stateside to gauge what the market holds.

The Association for Manufacturing Technology has released their U.S. Manufacturing and Technology Order (USMTO) report, which measures the net increases in new orders of manufacturing technology from American distributors. The results were certainly mixed, but overall were generally positive.

“Suppliers to technology builders are experiencing a backlog two to three times above normal levels, and consequently growth in manufacturing technology orders has slowed. A significant uptick in order activity is expected after IMTS (the International Manufacturing Technology Show),” said Douglas K. Woods, AMT President. “Along with monthly gains in industrial production, manufacturing payrolls also saw gains for the second consecutive month — an indicator that companies are both confident and optimistic that demand will increase.”

The Northeast, Midwest and the Western region of the US each registered a bad June, showing the potential for problems. However, each still managed to carry forward a positive increase versus last year.

On the other hand, both the Southern and the Central regions had excellent years and carried the bulk of the weight that brought the numbers up as a whole. For each, their orders went up approximately 18% against last year.

Here are the regional breakdowns for each area of the US:

Northeast Region:

Manufacturing technology orders in June stood at $63.23 million, 0.3% less than May’s $63.40 million and down 11.0% when compared with June a year ago.  At $377.27 million year-to-date, the 2012 total is slightly more than the $377.08 million for 2011 at the same time.

Southern Region:

Orders in the Southern Region for June totaled $87.59 million, up 11.6% from May’s $78.49 million and up 32.3% when compared with the June 2011 figure. The year-to-date total of $381.28 million is 18.1% more than the comparable figure for 2011.

Midwest Region:

Midwest orders totaled $136.07 million in June, down 9.8% from the $150.86 million total for May and 13.6% less than the total for June 2011. At $869.07 million, 2012 year-to-date is up 3.3% when compared with 2011 at the same time.

Central Region:

At $136.75 million, June manufacturing technology orders in the Central Region were up 8.5% when compared with the $126.08 million total for May and up 9.2% when compared with June a year ago. With a year-to-date total of $797.52 million, 2012 is up 18.0% when compared with 2011 at the same time.

Western Region:

June manufacturing technology orders in the Western Region totaled $39.31 million, 15.8% less than May’s $46.71 million and off 23.7% when compared with the June 2011 figure. At $257.23 million, the 2012 year-to-date total was 3.8% more than the comparable figure for 2011.