New orders of materials handling equipment in the United States rose 10.5% in the 12 months to August, reaching USD34.8 billion.

The latest MHEDA Fourth Quarter Economic Report notes that orders are growing at an accelerating pace.

MHEDA's advisor, ITR Economics, expects this trend to persist through the remainder of the year. However, it tips the rate of growth to diminish through 2018, flagging a contraction through most of 2019.

The rising order levels comes amid broader US industrial economic growth, according to the report.

It confirms that average annual US industrial production rose 0.7% in August, boosted by the manufacturing sector (up 0.9% year over year) and the mining sector (up 1.4%).

However, US electric and gas utilities production is contracting (down 0.7%) and will likely decline further in the coming months.

Leading indicator evidence generally suggests that US industrial production will accelerate into early 2018, but at a slower pace.

The full report is available here.