Federal Reserve Statistical Release, G.17, Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization; title with eagle logo links to Statistical Release home page
Release Date: January 15, 2010
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INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION
[Annual Revision Notice Below]

Industrial production increased 0.6 percent in December. The gain primarily resulted from an increase of 5.9 percent in electric and gas utilities due to unseasonably cold weather. Manufacturing production edged down 0.1 percent, while the output of mines rose 0.2 percent. The change in the overall index was revised up in October, but it was revised down in November; for the fourth quarter as a whole, total industrial production increased at an annual rate of 7.0 percent. At 100.3 percent of its 2002 average, output in December was 2.0 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry edged up to 72.0 percent in December, a rate 8.9 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION: SUMMARY
Seasonally adjusted
 
 
Industrial production
2002=100 Percent change
2009 2009 Dec. '08 to
Dec. '09
July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[r] Dec.[p] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[r] Dec.[p]
       
Total index   96.9   98.3   98.9   99.1   99.7  100.3    1.2    1.3     .6     .2     .6     .6   -2.0
   Previous estimates   96.8   98.1   98.6   98.6   99.4          1.1    1.3     .6     .0     .8    
       
Major market groups      
Final Products  100.1  101.5  102.3  102.8  102.7  103.4    1.1    1.4     .8     .5    -.1     .7   -2.6
   Consumer goods   97.3   98.7   99.7  100.3  100.3  100.9    1.0    1.5    1.0     .6     .0     .6     .3
   Business equipment  107.3  108.8  108.4  109.0  108.2  109.2    1.5    1.4    -.4     .5    -.7     .9   -9.6
Nonindustrial supplies   90.7   91.1   90.9   90.7   91.5   91.6     .2     .4    -.2    -.2     .9     .1   -5.1
   Construction   82.5   82.8   81.8   80.5   81.7   80.1     .5     .5   -1.2   -1.6    1.5   -2.0  -10.1
Materials   96.4   97.9   98.7   98.8  100.0  100.8    1.8    1.6     .8     .0    1.3     .8    -.1
       
Major industry groups      
Manufacturing (see note below)   95.9   97.3   98.0   97.8   98.7   98.7    1.6    1.4     .7    -.1     .9    -.1   -1.9
   Previous estimates   95.8   97.1   97.7   97.5   98.6          1.4    1.4     .7    -.2    1.1    
Mining   95.1   97.0   96.8   96.8   98.6   98.8    1.5    2.0    -.2     .0    1.9     .2   -4.5
Utilities  102.8  103.4  104.1  106.8  104.2  110.4   -1.0     .6     .6    2.6   -2.4    5.9    -.8


 
 
 
 
Capacity utilization
 
Percent of capacity
Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2008
1988-
89
high
1990-
91
low
1994-
95
high
2001-
02
low
 
2008
Dec.
   
2009 Dec. '08 to
Dec. '09
July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[r] Dec.[p]
       
Total industry   80.9   85.1   78.7   84.9   73.5   72.7   69.2   70.2   70.8   71.0   71.5   72.0   -1.0
   Previous estimates                                       69.1   70.1   70.6   70.6   71.3            
       
Manufacturing (see note below)   79.6   85.4   77.2   84.5   71.4   69.0   66.2   67.2   67.8   67.8   68.5   68.6   -1.3
   Previous estimates                                       66.1   67.1   67.6   67.6   68.4            
Mining   87.6   86.5   83.8   89.1   84.9   89.0   82.0   83.8   83.7   83.8   85.5   85.7    -.9
Utilities   86.8   92.8   84.2   93.3   84.2   85.1   77.8   78.2   78.5   80.5   78.4   82.9    1.8
       
Stage-of-process groups      
Crude   86.6   88.3   84.7   89.9   81.7   82.1   81.0   82.7   83.9   83.8   85.6   86.1   -1.4
Primary and semifinished   82.0   86.5   77.9   87.9   74.3   71.4   66.5   67.1   67.6   67.9   68.2   68.9   -1.1
Finished   77.7   83.0   77.2   80.3   70.0   70.3   67.6   68.9   69.3   69.5   69.9   70.2    -.7
r Revised. p Preliminary

Market Groups

The production of consumer goods moved up 0.6 percent in December, as a large increase in residential sales by utilities boosted the index for consumer energy goods. Elsewhere, the output of consumer durables fell 0.9 percent, and the output of consumer non-energy nondurables was unchanged. Among durables, decreases in the indexes for automotive products and for appliances, furniture, and carpeting more than offset an increase in the index for home electronics. Among non-energy nondurables, the output of chemical products rose 0.9 percent, but the output of paper products fell 1.7 percent; production for other major categories decreased slightly. For the fourth quarter as a whole, the overall index for consumer goods increased at an annual rate of 8.0 percent.

The index for business equipment rose 0.9 percent in December, with gains for all of its major components. Both transit equipment and information processing equipment increased more than 1.0 percent. The advance in information processing equipment included a sizable gain in the production of communications equipment. For the fourth quarter as a whole, the index for business equipment increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent.

The production of defense and space equipment fell 0.3 percent in December, for its third consecutive monthly decline. Nevertheless, the index was 2.3 percent above its year-earlier level.

Among nonindustrial supplies, the production of construction supplies decreased 2.0 percent in December and more than reversed its gain a month earlier. For the fourth quarter as a whole, construction supplies fell at an annual rate of 7.6 percent after having risen 1.6 percent in the third quarter. The output of business supplies moved up 1.1 percent in December; an increase in commercial energy products more than offset a decline in general business supplies. The index for business supplies has increased for seven consecutive months; for the fourth quarter as a whole, it advanced at an annual rate of 5.8 percent.

The production of materials moved up 0.8 percent in December, its sixth consecutive monthly gain. The index advanced at an annual rate of 9.3 percent in the fourth quarter, after having gained 10.1 percent in the third quarter. In December, the production of energy materials increased 1.8 percent, primarily because of a jump in the output of electric and gas utilities. Non-energy materials increased 0.4 percent. Among non-energy materials, the index for durables increased 0.7 percent, while the index for nondurables was unchanged. All major components of durable materials increased. Among nondurable materials, an increase of 1.5 percent in the output of chemical materials was offset by decreases in textile, paper, and other nondurable materials.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output edged down 0.1 percent in December after a gain of 0.9 percent in November. Capacity utilization for manufacturing was 68.6 percent, a rate 11.0 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008. For the fourth quarter as a whole, manufacturing output increased at an annual rate of 5.7 percent.

The production of durable goods increased 0.1 percent in December. The indexes for machinery and for computer and electronic products registered robust gains, but large declines were recorded in nonmetallic mineral products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and miscellaneous manufacturing. Most other major categories of durables advanced moderately.

The production of nondurable goods edged down 0.1 percent in December. The output of paper declined 2.0 percent, and production of petroleum and coal products fell 3.2 percent, while production of chemical products increased 1.3 percent; results for the other components were mixed. The index for non-NAICS manufacturing industries (logging and publishing) declined 1.7 percent in December.

For mining, output increased 0.2 percent in December, and capacity utilization edged up to 85.7 percent, a rate 1.9 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008. For the fourth quarter as a whole, the index for mining rose at an annual rate of 7.5 percent. The output of utilities jumped 5.9 percent in December, and the operating rate for utilities rose 4.5 percentage points to 82.9 percent. The output of natural gas utilities increased 12.2 percent, and the output of electric utilities rose 4.7 percent.

Capacity utilization rates at industries grouped by stage of process changed in December as follows: For the crude stage, utilization rose 0.5 percentage point to 86.1 percent, a rate 0.5 percentage point below its 1972-2008 average; for the primary and semifinished stages, utilization rose 0.7 percentage point to 68.9 percent, a rate 13.1 percentage points below its long-run average; and for the finished stage, utilization increased 0.3 percentage point to 70.2 percent, a rate 7.5 percentage points below its long-run average.

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board plans to issue its annual revision to the index of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization in the second quarter of 2010. The revised IP indexes will incorporate detailed data from the 2007 Economic Census and the 2008 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), both conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data from selected editions of the Census Bureau's 2008 Current Industrial Reports will also be incorporated, as will annual data from the U.S. Geological Survey regarding metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels) for 2008. The updating will include 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 the methods for estimating the output of an industry will affect the index from 1972 to the present.

Capacity and capacity utilization will be revised to incorporate data from the Census Bureau's Quarterly 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 the revision 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 | 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)
Data Download Program (DDP) | Announcements | Historical data (text files)

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