INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION
[2006 Revision Notice Below]

Industrial production rose 0.2 percent in October after having decreased 0.6 percent in September; production in August was revised up to show a gain of 0.3 percent. At 113.7 percent of its 2002 average, the index in October was 4.9 percent higher than its year-earlier level. Manufacturing output declined 0.2 percent in October; excluding motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing output rose 0.1 percent. The index for mining increased 0.6 percent, and the index for utilities bounced up 4.1 percent after having fallen 4.6 percent in September. The rate of capacity utilization for total industry rose 0.1 percentage point, to 82.2 percent, a level 1.2 percentage points above its 1972-2005 average.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION: SUMMARY
Seasonally adjusted

Industrial production	2002=100				Percent change
	2006				2006				Oct. '05 to Oct. '06
	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.
Total index	113.7	114.0	113.4	113.7	.3	.3	-.6	.2	4.9
Previous estimates	113.8	113.8	113.1		.3	.0	-.6
Major market groups
Final Products	115.3	115.8	115.0	114.9	.2	.4	-.7	-.1	3.0
Consumer goods	107.4	107.9	106.9	106.4	-.5	.4	-.9	-.5	-.1
Business equipment	136.3	136.8	136.6	137.5	1.9	.4	-.2	.7	11.8
Nonindustrial supplies	112.5	112.7	111.5	112.4	.2	.2	-1.1	.8	2.6
Construction	113.8	113.5	112.4	112.7	.4	-.3	-.9	.2	.3
Materials	112.6	112.7	112.4	112.9	.4	.1	-.3	.4	7.6
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below)	115.5	116.0	115.7	115.5	.4	.4	-.2	-.2	4.1
Previous estimates	115.5	115.8	115.4		.4	.2	-.3
Mining	101.2	100.4	100.8	101.4	-.1	-.8	.4	.6	13.8
Utilities	109.5	109.7	104.6	108.9	.2	.1	-4.6	4.1	2.8

Market Groups

The output of consumer goods declined 0.5 percent in October. The index for durable consumer goods fell 2.6 percent; a drop of 4.6 percent in the production of automotive products accounted for most of the decrease. The index for automotive products stood 11.5 percent below its year-earlier level. The decrease in automotive products in October resulted from another decrease in light truck assemblies and a strike at a major producer of tires. Light truck assemblies stood at an annual rate of 5.6 million units in October, compared with a rate of 7.0 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005. The output of home electronics increased 1.0 percent in October, while the production indexes for miscellaneous goods and for appliances, furniture, and carpeting declined modestly. The output of consumer nonenergy nondurables edged up, as increases in the indexes for clothing and for paper products slightly more than offset a small decline in the index for foods and tobacco; the output of chemical products was unchanged. The index for consumer energy products rose 0.8 percent after having fallen sharply in September.

The output of business equipment increased 0.7 percent in October; all major categories registered gains and remained well above their year-earlier levels. The production of defense and space equipment moved up 0.4 percent to a level 5-1/4 percent higher than its level of a year earlier. The index for construction supplies increased 0.2 percent and was only slightly above its year-earlier level; the index for business supplies posted a gain of 1.1 percent. Materials output increased 0.4 percent in October; the output of non-energy materials was unchanged, but the production of energy materials rose 1.3 percent.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output decreased 0.2 percent in October. The production of both durable and nondurable goods decreased, but the output of non-NAICS manufacturing (logging and publishing) rose. Capacity utilization in manufacturing declined 0.3 percentage point, to 80.7 percent, a level that was 0.9 percentage point above its 1972-2005 average. Among durable goods categories, the changes in output were mixed. The production of motor vehicles and parts, primary metals, and wood products recorded large drops, while substantial gains were reported in the output of computer and electronic products and of aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment. Among nondurables, which declined 0.4 percent in October, the largest drops were in the indexes for petroleum and coal products, plastics and rubber products, and textile and product mills. Elsewhere in nondurables, the indexes for apparel and leather and for printing and support registered substantial output gains.

The increase of 4.1 percent in output at utilities in October largely reflected colder-than-normal conditions following mild temperatures in September. The output at mines moved up 0.6 percent in October and was 13.8 percent above its hurricane-related trough in October 2005.

Capacity utilization for industries at the crude stage of processing increased 0.3 percentage point, to 89.6 percent. The utilization rate for industries at the primary and semifinished stages increased 0.3 percentage point, to 83.2 percent, and the utilization rate for finished goods producers declined 0.4 percentage point, to 79.3 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 tentatively December 11 but is conditional on the date of issuance of the 2005 Annual Survey of Manufactures. An announcement will be posted on the Board's website at www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17 when the final date for the G.17 revision is 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)

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