TALLAHASSEE, FL—Florida Gov. Rick Scott has proposed eliminating sales tax on manufacturing machinery.

WASHINGTON—Orders for the factory goods that signal business investment plans jumped last month by the most in more than a year, suggesting companies are confident about their business prospects. Orders for so-called core capital goods, which include industrial machinery, construction equipment and computers, rose 6.3 percent in January from December.

WASHINGTON—U.S. sales of machine tools totaled more than $5.7 billion in 2012, a 2.6 percent increase compared with 2011 and the highest total since 1996.

WASHINGTON—US sales of machine tools are up 5.3 percent in the first 10 months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, according to the AMT—The Association for Manufacturing Technology.

WASHINGTON—U.S. businesses and government agencies will finance more than $742 billion in equipment acquisitions in 2013, a record total, according to the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.

BANGOR, ME—Nautel Inc., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of transmitters, has invested $500,000 in new equipment for its assembly plant here.

With the election over and the economy picking up steam, manufacturers are poised to reinvest in their assembly plants.

WASHINGTON—U.S. sales of machine tools totaled $667.47 million in September. That’s an increase of 40.7 percent from August 2012 and an increase of 13.4 percent from September 2011, according to the AMT—The Association for Manufacturing Technology.

CHARLOTTE, NC—Material handling equipment orders are forecasted to grow 8 percent to 9 percent in 2012 and 6 percent in 2013, according to the Material Handling Industry of America.

WASHINGTON—U.S. sales of machine tools totaled $470.4 million in August, an increase of 3 percent compared with July sales. All totaled, machine tools sales for the first eight months of the year are up 4 percent compared with the same period in 2011.