Market Data

Electrical Machinery Imports by the Numbers: Where $51.49B Sits in the Census Record

A data study charting the monthly series' live history, the archived peak and trough, the spread between them, and the growth rates that define the current phase.

U.S. electrical machinery and equipment imports stand at $51.49B per month as of May 2026, up about 29.9% from a year ago, with the Census series' committed trend reading rising. Set against the archived record, from a Feb 2026 low of $39.38B to a Apr 2026 high of $281.59B, the latest month sits 5% of the way up the band.

The record: trough, peak, and spread

The archived window brackets the series between $39.38B at the soft end (Feb 2026) and $281.59B at the heavy end (Apr 2026), a spread of $242.22B between the extremes. A band that wide in a customs-value series reflects more than demand: single months can be inflated by tariff front-running or a burst of high-value semiconductor entries, and deflated by duty dates passing or holiday shipping lulls. The lesson for anyone quoting this line is to name the month and read the level against the band, not in isolation.

The phase the series is in now

Phase analysis reduces the chart to two live facts: the year-over-year rate and the direction. The latest month is up about 29.9% from a year ago, and the committed trend is rising, together they describe the current phase of a flow that ultimately tracks electrification-heavy investment in grids, data centers, and automated plants. Comparing against the sibling Chapter 84 machinery line shows whether the electrical and mechanical halves of the capital-goods import bill are moving together; when they diverge, the difference is usually the semiconductor and electronics content unique to Chapter 85.

Electrical machinery imports per month, May 2026: $51.49B. Ranged from $39.38B in Feb 2026 to $281.59B in Apr 2026 across the archived history.

The arithmetic of the current pace

Annualized, the latest month implies $617.82B of electrical machinery and equipment imports a year, roughly $2,452 million each business day. Against the archived low, the current level stands +30.7%; against the archived high, -81.7%. For researchers, those three computed numbers, run rate, distance from trough, distance from peak, are the citable skeleton of the series, and each one refreshes automatically as Census publishes new months.

Name the month and read the level against the band. A customs-value series quoted without context is a number, not a fact.

If import economics are shifting, compare them against domestic supply with the reshoring cost comparison calculator. Test the sourcing math

Published 2026-07-13.