INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION

[2006 Revision Notice Below]

Industrial production declined 0.1 percent in August after an increase of 0.4 percent in July. Manufacturing output was unchanged in August; it advanced an upward-revised 0.4 percent in July. The output at utilities fell in August, as temperatures returned to more-normal levels. Production at mines moved down after increasing in the previous four months.

Capacity utilization for total industry fell to 82.4 percent in August. Even so, the utilization rate was more than 2 percentage points above its level in August 2005 and 1.4 percentage points above its 1972-2005 average.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION: SUMMARY
Seasonally adjusted

Industrial production	2002=100				Percent change
	2006				2006				Aug. '05 to Aug. '06
	May	June	July	Aug.	May	June	July	Aug.
Total index	112.2	113.4	113.9	113.7	.1	1.1	.4	-.1	4.7
Previous estimates	112.2	113.1	113.5		.0	.8	.4
Major market groups
Final Products	113.5	115.0	115.4	115.5	-.2	1.4	.3	.1	5.0
Consumer goods	106.3	107.9	107.5	107.6	-.2	1.5	-.4	.1	1.9
Business equipment	132.0	133.5	136.6	136.3	-.4	1.2	2.3	-.2	13.5
Nonindustrial supplies	111.6	112.3	113.0	112.4	.2	.7	.6	-.5	4.0
Construction	113.3	113.6	114.4	114.2	-.6	.3	.7	-.1	5.6
Materials	111.0	112.1	112.6	112.4	.3	.9	.5	-.2	4.7
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below)	114.1	115.1	115.5	115.5	-.2	.9	.4	.0	5.4
Previous estimates	114.1	115.1	115.2		-.1	.8	.1
Mining	100.4	101.4	102.0	101.6	.5	.9	.6	-.3	2.5
Utilities	106.2	109.0	110.1	109.2	1.9	2.6	1.0	-.8	.7

Market Groups

The output of consumer goods edged up 0.1 percent in August. An increase of 1.2�percent in the production of durable consumer goods mainly reflected an increase in the output of automotive products. After falling at an annual rate of 1 million units in July, assemblies of autos and light trucks rose 0.4�million units, to 10.6�million units, in August. The output of appliances, furniture, and carpeting moved up 1.2�percent after having declined for four consecutive months. The index for home electronics moved up, and the index for miscellaneous durable goods decreased. The production of consumer nondurable goods fell 0.3�percent; within this category, all of the major indexes declined, except clothing, which edged up 0.1 percent.

In August, the production of business equipment moved down 0.2�percent but was up 13.5 percent from its year-earlier level. The index for industrial and other equipment edged down 0.2 percent. Led by gains in the output of civilian aircraft and motor vehicles, the production of transit equipment increased 0.3 percent and was up 18.5 percent from its year-earlier level. A decline of 0.4 percent in the production of information processing equipment reflected a decrease in the output of communications equipment that was partly offset by an increase in the production of business computers. A rise of 0.3�percent in the production of defense and space equipment followed appreciable gains in June and July.

The production of construction supplies edged down 0.1 percent in August after a gain of 0.7�percent in July. The index for business supplies fell 0.7 percent in August, its first decline in six months. A decrease of 0.2 percent in the index for materials reflected lower output of both non-energy and energy materials. The indexes for consumer parts and for equipment parts moved up, but the index for other durable materials was flat. Among the major categories of nondurable non-energy materials, the indexes for paper and for chemicals fell, and the output of textiles was unchanged.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output was flat in August, as a rise in the production of durable goods was offset by a decrease in the output of nondurables. Capacity utilization in manufacturing edged down to 81.0 percent, a level that was still 2.2 percentage points above that of August 2005. Within the durable manufacturing category, the production of motor vehicles and parts increased but was down 2.7 percent from its year-earlier level. An increase in the output of primary metals in August partially reversed a decline in July. The index for fabricated metal products moved up in August for a third consecutive month. The production of machinery retreated 0.5 percent after a jump of 4.5 percent in July. The output of computer and electronic products increased 0.5 percent in August. A decrease in the output of nondurable goods reflected widespread declines among the major categories; the only major category that increased was petroleum and coal products, which rose 0.2 percent. The output of other (non-NAICS) manufacturing industries (publishing and logging) fell 0.6 percent.

In mining, a drop of 0.3 percent in output was due mostly to a decline in oil and gas extraction. Capacity utilization at mines declined to 91.7�percent. The output at utilities dropped 0.8�percent, and capacity utilization for the industry fell to 88.5�percent.

Capacity utilization for industries in the crude stage of processing decreased 0.2 percentage point, to 89.1 percent. The operating rate for industries in the primary and semifinished stages moved down 0.4�percentage point, to 83.6 percent. For industries in the finished goods stage, capacity utilization edged down 0.1 percentage point, to 79.8�percent.

Notice

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board plans to issue an annual revision to the index of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity and capacity utilization late this year; the publication date is yet to be determined. The revised IP indexes will incorporate data from the 2004 and 2005 Annual Surveys of Manufactures and from selected editions of the 2004 and 2005 Current Industrial Reports, all from the U.S. Census Bureau. Annual data from the U.S. Geological Survey regarding metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels) for 2004 and 2005 will also be incorporated. The updating will include revisions to the monthly indicator for each industry (either product data or input data) and to seasonal factors.

Capacity and capacity utilization will be revised to incorporate preliminary data from the Census Bureau's 2005 Survey of Plant Capacity, which covers manufacturing, along with new data on capacity from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Energy, and other organizations.

Once the revision is published, it will be available on the Board's website at www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17. The revised data will also be available through the website of the Department of Commerce. Further information on these revisions can be obtained from the Board's Industrial Output Section (telephone number 202-452-3197).

Note. The statistics in this release cover output, capacity, and capacity utilization in the U.S. industrial sector, which is defined by the Federal Reserve to comprise manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities. Mining is defined as all industries in sector 21 of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS); electric and gas utilities are those in NAICS sectors 2211 and 2212. Manufacturing comprises NAICS manufacturing industries (sector 31-33) plus the logging industry and the newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishing industries. Logging and publishing are classified elsewhere in NAICS (under agriculture and information respectively), but historically they were considered to be manufacturing and were included in the industrial sector under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. In December 2002 the Federal Reserve reclassified all its industrial output data from the SIC system to NAICS.

G.17 Release Tables:

Ascii	Screen reader	Summary: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
Chart		Chart 1: Industrial Production, Capacity, and Capacity Utilization
Chart		Chart 2: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
Chart		Chart 3: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization, High Technology Industries
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 1: Industrial Production: Market and Industry Groups (percent change)
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 2: Industrial Production: Special Aggregates and Selected Detail (percent change)
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 3: Motor Vehicle Assemblies
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 4: Industrial Production Indexes: Market and Industry Group Summary
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 5: Industrial Production Indexes: Special Aggregates
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 6: Diffusion Indexes of Industrial Production
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 7: Capacity Utilization: Manufacturing, Mining, and Utilities
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 8: Industrial Capacity: Manufacturing, Mining, and Utilities (percent change)
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 9: Industrial Production: Gross Value of Products and Nonindustrial Supplies
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 10: Gross-Value-Weighted Industrial Production: Stage-of-Process Groups
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 11: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Total Industry
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 12: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Manufacturing
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 13: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Total Industry excluding Selected High-Technology Industries
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 14: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Manufacturing excluding Selected High-Technology Industries

Release dates | Historical data | Data Download |Documentation
Current Monthly Release   Other formats: ASCII | PDF (144 KB)
Supplemental Monthly Release   Other formats: ASCII | PDF (144 KB)
Annual Revision Release   Other formats: ASCII | PDF (150 KB)

Statistical releases