Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release (247 KB PDF) (ASCII)

Release Date: November 17, 2014

Industrial production edged down 0.1 percent in October after having advanced 0.8 percent in September. In October, manufacturing output increased 0.2 percent for the second consecutive month. The index for mining declined 0.9 percent and the output of utilities moved down 0.7 percent. At 104.9 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in October was 4.0 percent above its level of a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.3 percentage point in October to 78.9 percent, a rate that is 1.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2013) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary

Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2007=100 Percent change
2014 2014 Oct. '13 to
Oct. '14
May[r] June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[p] May[r] June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[p]
       
Total index 103.7 104.0 104.3 104.1 105.0 104.9 .5 .3 .3 -.2 .8 -.1 4.0
Previous estimates 103.7 104.0 104.2 104.0 105.1   .5 .3 .2 -.2 1.0    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 100.2 100.0 100.8 100.0 100.3 100.3 .0 -.2 .8 -.7 .3 .0 2.3
Consumer goods 97.1 96.8 97.5 96.5 96.9 96.7 -.3 -.2 .7 -1.0 .4 -.2 1.4
Business equipment 107.2 106.9 108.2 107.9 107.5 108.2 .8 -.3 1.2 -.3 -.4 .6 4.6
Nonindustrial supplies 90.9 91.0 91.2 91.4 92.3 92.3 .6 .1 .2 .2 1.0 .0 2.8
Construction 84.0 84.3 85.2 85.2 85.5 85.7 1.4 .4 1.0 -.1 .5 .2 3.7
Materials 111.3 112.3 112.2 112.3 113.6 113.4 .8 .9 -.1 .1 1.2 -.2 5.7
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 99.5 99.9 100.7 100.2 100.4 100.6 .4 .4 .8 -.5 .2 .2 3.4
Previous estimates 99.5 99.8 100.5 100.0 100.5   .4 .3 .7 -.5 .5    
Mining 129.0 130.8 130.6 131.2 133.2 132.1 1.0 1.4 -.2 .4 1.6 -.9 9.9
Utilities 101.3 99.3 96.4 97.1 101.2 100.5 .3 -2.0 -3.0 .8 4.2 -.7 -1.3

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2013
1988-
89
high
1990-
91
low
1994-
95
high
 
2009
low
 
2013
Oct.
   
2014 Oct. '13 to
Oct. '14
May[r] June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[p]
       
Total industry 80.1 85.3 78.7 85.0 66.9 78.2 79.1 79.2 79.2 78.8 79.2 78.9 3.0
Previous estimates             79.1 79.1 79.1 78.7 79.3    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.7 85.6 77.3 84.6 63.9 76.3 77.1 77.3 77.8 77.3 77.3 77.2 2.2
Previous estimates             77.1 77.2 77.6 77.1 77.3    
Mining 87.3 86.3 83.8 88.5 78.8 87.4 89.8 90.4 89.5 89.1 89.8 88.3 8.7
Utilities 86.1 92.9 84.3 93.3 78.5 80.3 79.5 77.9 75.5 76.0 79.1 78.5 1.0
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 86.3 87.7 84.4 89.6 76.8 85.9 87.4 87.8 87.3 87.1 87.7 86.6 7.0
Primary and semifinished 80.8 86.5 77.9 87.7 64.2 76.9 77.4 77.5 77.1 77.0 77.7 77.6 1.9
Finished 77.1 83.4 77.4 80.6 66.8 76.1 77.1 77.0 77.6 76.9 76.8 76.8 2.4
r Revised. p Preliminary.
Market Groups

In October, declines in the indexes for consumer goods and materials were the largest contributors to the decrease in total industrial production; the indexes for defense and space equipment and for business supplies also recorded declines. Gains in the production of business equipment and construction supplies offset some of the losses. The output of consumer goods moved down 0.2 percent, with decreases of more than 1 percent for automotive products and paper products and with a smaller decline for energy goods. The output of materials decreased 0.2 percent, as a decline in the production of energy materials was only partially offset by small gains in the indexes for durable and nondurable materials. By contrast, the production of business equipment moved up 0.6 percent, with increases in the indexes for information processing equipment and for industrial and other equipment; the output of business equipment was 4.6 percent above its level of a year earlier.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output rose 0.2 percent in October, as the production of nondurable goods rose 0.3 percent and the production of durable goods edged up 0.1 percent. Among durable goods industries, machinery posted the largest increase, 1.3 percent, while wood products, computers and electronic products, and furniture and related products all recorded gains of more than 1/2 percent. These gains were partially offset by declines of more than 1 percent in the indexes for nonmetallic mineral products and for motor vehicles and parts. The decline in motor vehicles and parts resulted from a decrease in vehicle assemblies, which fell 400,000 units to an annual rate of 11.1 million. Production increased for most nondurable goods industries, with the largest advances recorded by chemicals and by plastics and rubber products; only the paper industry registered a decline. The production of other manufacturing (non-NAICS) industries fell 1.1 percent.

The capacity utilization rate for manufacturing edged down 0.1 percentage point in October to 77.2 percent, a rate 1.5 percentage points below its long-run average. Although the operating rate for nondurable goods industries increased, utilization both for durables and for other manufacturing (non-NAICS) decreased. The utilization rate for mines fell 1.5 percentage points to 88.3 percent, while the rate for utilities decreased 0.6 percentage point to 78.5 percent.

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:

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

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Last update: November 17, 2014