INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION

[2008 Revision Notice Below]

Industrial production declined 0.7 percent in April after having risen 0.2 percent in March. Manufacturing output fell 0.8 percent in April. As was the case in March, factory output in April was held down by a large drop in the index for motor vehicles and parts; strikes and strike-related parts shortages resulted in suspended production at many facilities. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing production fell back 0.4 percent after having increased 0.3 percent in March. In April, the output of utilities rose 0.3 percent, and the output at mines decreased 0.8 percent. At 111.2 percent of its 2002 average, overall industrial production was 0.2 percent above its year-earlier level. The rate of capacity utilization for total industry declined 0.7 percentage point, to 79.7 percent, a level 1.3 percentage points below its average for 1972-2007.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION: SUMMARY
Seasonally adjusted

Industrial production	2002=100						Percent change
	2007		2008				2007		2008				Apr. '07 to Apr. '08
	Nov.[r]	Dec.[r]	Jan.[r]	Feb.[r]	Mar.[r]	Apr.[p]	Nov.[r]	Dec.[r]	Jan.[r]	Feb.[r]	Mar.[r]	Apr.[p]
Total index	112.3	112.4	112.6	111.8	112.0	111.2	.4	.1	.1	-.7	.2	-.7	.2
Previous estimates	112.3	112.4	112.6	111.8	112.1		.4	.1	.1	-.7	.3
Major market groups
Final Products	113.3	113.5	113.9	113.2	113.1	112.3	.3	.2	.4	-.7	-.1	-.7	-.2
Consumer goods	107.4	107.4	108.0	107.1	106.7	105.8	.1	.0	.5	-.8	-.4	-.8	-1.6
Business equipment	130.2	131.1	131.4	131.2	132.1	130.7	.2	.7	.2	-.2	.7	-1.1	3.0
Nonindustrial supplies	107.9	107.7	107.9	106.4	106.8	105.9	.0	-.1	.1	-1.3	.3	-.8	-2.0
Construction	104.5	104.8	104.5	103.1	102.7	101.1	-.8	.2	-.3	-1.3	-.5	-1.5	-4.7
Materials	113.0	113.2	113.0	112.4	112.8	112.0	.7	.2	-.1	-.6	.4	-.7	1.3
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below)	113.8	113.8	113.8	113.0	113.0	112.1	.2	.1	.0	-.7	.0	-.8	-.3
Previous estimates	113.7	113.8	113.9	113.3	113.4		.2	.1	.1	-.5	.1
Mining	102.9	104.3	103.4	103.7	104.7	103.9	1.6	1.4	-.8	.3	1.0	-.8	3.1
Utilities	109.1	108.2	111.0	108.4	109.2	109.6	.6	-.7	2.5	-2.3	.7	.3	.8

Market Groups

The production of consumer goods decreased 0.8 percent in April. The output of consumer durables dropped 4.1 percent, but the output of consumer nondurables was unchanged. Among durable consumer goods, the large decline principally reflected the strike-related curtailments for automotive products manufacturers; however, the output indexes for appliances, furniture, and carpeting and for miscellaneous goods also fell. Among consumer non-energy nondurables, the index for paper products dropped 1.9 percent, but the indexes for the other major categories were little changed. The output of consumer energy products gained 0.7 percent.

In April, the output of business equipment fell 1.1 percent. The index for transit equipment dropped 2.8 percent, primarily as a result of the strike activity in the motor vehicle industry. The output of industrial and other equipment also posted a significant decrease, as production was cut sharply for both farm and construction machinery. The index for information processing equipment rose 1.2 percent and stood 13.1 percent above its year-earlier level. The production of defense and space equipment moved up 1.6 percent. The output of construction supplies fell 1.5 percent and has declined in five of the past six months. The production of business supplies stepped down 0.5 percent.

The output of materials declined 0.7 percent in April, and durable, nondurable, and energy materials all posted losses. Within durables, the output of consumer parts fell 3.3 percent and stood nearly 12 percent below its year-earlier level; reductions in the output of motor vehicle parts have contributed in large measure to the weakness in this index. The production of equipment parts was unchanged after having risen 1.3 percent in March, and the output of other durable materials decreased 0.8 percent. Among nondurable materials, the production of both textile and paper materials fell substantially in April, and the output of chemical materials edged down. The production of energy materials declined 0.6 percent.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output fell 0.8 percent in April; half of this loss was attributable to a drop of 8.2 percent in the production of motor vehicles and parts. The factory operating rate moved down 0.8 percentage point, to 77.5 percent. The production of durable goods fell 1.4 percent after having been unchanged in March. In addition to the motor vehicles and parts industry, the durable manufacturing industries that registered decreases in output of more than 1 percent in April included nonmetallic mineral products, fabricated metal products, and machinery. In contrast, the output of computer and electronic products moved up more than 1 percent for the third consecutive month. The index for nondurable manufacturing edged down 0.1 percent; sizable reductions occurred in the indexes for textile and product mills, printing and support, and plastics and rubber products. The output of petroleum and coal products rose. Increases in gasoline and aviation fuel contributed to the gain at refineries; output indexes for both of these products have advanced more than 5 percent from their year-earlier levels. The production of non-NAICS manufacturing (logging and publishing) fell 1.8 percent.

The output of utilities edged up 0.3 percent; its operating rate was little changed, at 85.9 percent, a level 0.9 percentage point below its 1972-2007 average. Mining production decreased 0.8 percent, with losses in all of its major components. The capacity utilization rate for mining fell 0.8 percentage point, to 90.6 percent, a rate 3.1 percentage points above its long-run average.

Capacity utilization at industries grouped by stage of process changed as follows: For the crude stage, utilization moved down 0.8 percentage point, to 89.2 percent, a rate 2.6 percentage points above its 1972-2007 average; for the primary and semifinished stages, utilization moved down 0.5 percentage point, to 79.6 percent, a rate 2.6 percentage points below its long-run average; and for the finished stage, utilization decreased 0.9 percentage point, to 76.2 percent, a rate 1.5 percentage points below its long-run average.

Notice

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board issued an annual revision to the indexes of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity and capacity utilization on March 28, 2008. The revised IP indexes incorporated data from the 2006 Annual Survey of Manufactures and from selected editions of the 2006 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 2006 were also incorporated. The update included revisions to the monthly indicator (either product data or input data) and to seasonal factors for each industry as well as changes in the estimation methods for some series. Any changes to methods for estimating the output of an industry affected the indexes from 1972 to the present.

Monthly releases now include new or revised indexes for a six-month reporting window, which encompasses one month of new data and revisions to the previous five months of data. The new longer reporting window allows the incorporation of additional lagging data before an annual revision. Had a six-month window been used over the past year, an additional 3 percent to 4 percent of IP would have reflected source data. For a few indexes, the longer reporting window will cause the latest month of data shown to be as many as five months earlier than the latest value for aggregate IP; data for detailed production indexes are not shown in the supplement to the G.17 release until either the underlying data are available or the reporting window is closed.

Capacity and capacity utilization have been revised to reflect the revised production indexes and to incorporate data from the Census Bureau's 2006 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.

The revision is now available on the Board's website (www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17). The revised data are also available through the website of the Department of Commerce (www.stat-usa.gov). 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