DDP
PrintIndustrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
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Industrial production declined 0.2 percent in October after decreasing the same amount in September. In October, the index for manufacturing moved up 0.4 percent, while the index for mining fell 1.5 percent and the index for utilities dropped 2.5 percent. For the third quarter as a whole, total industrial production is now estimated to have increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent; a gain of 1.8 percent had been reported previously. At 107.2 percent of its 2012 average, total industrial production in October was 0.3 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector declined 0.2 percentage point in October to 77.5 percent, a rate that is 2.6 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2014) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
| Industrial production | 2012=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015 | Oct. '14 to Oct. '15 |
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| 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 | 106.7 | 106.7 | 107.5 | 107.6 | 107.4 | 107.2 | -.4 | .0 | .8 | .1 | -.2 | -.2 | .3 |
| Previous estimates | 106.7 | 106.6 | 107.4 | 107.3 | 107.1 | -.4 | .0 | .8 | -.1 | -.2 | |||
| Major market groups | |||||||||||||
| Final Products | 103.6 | 103.5 | 104.8 | 105.1 | 105.1 | 105.0 | -.2 | -.1 | 1.2 | .3 | -.1 | -.1 | 1.2 |
| Consumer goods | 104.9 | 105.0 | 106.8 | 107.0 | 107.2 | 107.1 | -.5 | .0 | 1.8 | .2 | .2 | -.1 | 3.5 |
| Business equipment | 106.9 | 106.7 | 106.7 | 107.4 | 106.9 | 107.1 | .8 | -.2 | .1 | .6 | -.5 | .2 | .5 |
| Nonindustrial supplies | 105.3 | 105.6 | 105.6 | 105.8 | 105.6 | 106.1 | -.1 | .3 | .0 | .2 | -.2 | .4 | .7 |
| Construction | 108.8 | 109.3 | 109.6 | 109.9 | 108.5 | 110.3 | .4 | .4 | .2 | .3 | -1.3 | 1.7 | 1.5 |
| Materials | 109.7 | 109.7 | 110.4 | 110.2 | 109.8 | 109.4 | -.5 | .0 | .6 | -.2 | -.3 | -.4 | -.6 |
| Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
| Manufacturing (see note below) | 105.2 | 105.0 | 106.1 | 106.0 | 105.9 | 106.3 | .0 | -.1 | 1.0 | -.2 | -.1 | .4 | 1.9 |
| Previous estimates | 105.2 | 105.0 | 106.1 | 105.7 | 105.5 | .0 | -.2 | 1.0 | -.4 | -.1 | |||
| Mining | 115.3 | 115.3 | 116.5 | 116.9 | 114.2 | 112.5 | -2.3 | .0 | 1.1 | .3 | -2.4 | -1.5 | -6.9 |
| Utilities | 102.2 | 103.1 | 101.7 | 103.3 | 104.5 | 101.9 | -.5 | .9 | -1.4 | 1.6 | 1.2 | -2.5 | -1.5 |
| Capacity utilization | Percent of capacity | Capacity growth |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average 1972- 2014 |
1988- 89 high |
1990- 91 low |
1994- 95 high |
2009 low |
2014 Oct. |
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| 2015 | Oct. '14 to Oct. '15 |
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| May[r] | June[r] | July[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[p] | ||||||||
| Total industry | 80.1 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.0 | 66.9 | 78.5 | 77.6 | 77.5 | 78.0 | 78.0 | 77.7 | 77.5 | 1.5 |
| Previous estimates | 77.6 | 77.5 | 78.0 | 77.8 | 77.5 | ||||||||
| Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.5 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.6 | 63.9 | 75.8 | 76.0 | 75.8 | 76.5 | 76.3 | 76.2 | 76.4 | 1.2 |
| Previous estimates | 76.0 | 75.7 | 76.4 | 76.1 | 75.9 | ||||||||
| Mining | 87.5 | 86.2 | 83.8 | 88.7 | 79.0 | 90.4 | 83.5 | 83.3 | 84.0 | 84.1 | 81.9 | 80.5 | 4.5 |
| Utilities | 85.9 | 92.9 | 84.3 | 93.3 | 78.5 | 79.6 | 78.2 | 78.9 | 77.8 | 79.0 | 79.9 | 77.8 | .8 |
| Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
| Crude | 86.3 | 87.6 | 84.3 | 89.8 | 76.9 | 87.9 | 83.1 | 82.7 | 83.3 | 83.1 | 81.8 | 80.8 | 3.5 |
| Primary and semifinished | 80.7 | 86.5 | 78.1 | 87.8 | 64.2 | 76.5 | 76.1 | 76.1 | 76.4 | 76.3 | 76.3 | 76.1 | .9 |
| Finished | 77.0 | 83.4 | 77.4 | 80.7 | 66.7 | 75.7 | 76.0 | 75.9 | 76.6 | 76.8 | 76.6 | 76.7 | 1.4 |
Market Groups
Consumer goods production decreased 0.1 percent in October. The index for consumer durables rose 0.5 percent, while the index for consumer nondurables moved down 0.3 percent. Within consumer nondurables, a large drop in energy products outweighed a small gain in non-energy products. The output of business equipment rose slightly; decreases for transit equipment and for information processing equipment were more than offset by an increase for industrial and other equipment. The index for construction supplies rose 1.7 percent, while the index for business supplies edged down. The production of materials declined 0.4 percent. The output of energy materials fell 2.0 percent, while the indexes for both durable and nondurable materials, as well as for all of their major components, rose.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output increased 0.4 percent in October, as the output of durable goods advanced 0.5 percent and the production of nondurable goods rose 0.3 percent. Nearly all major categories of durable goods industries moved up, and gains of 1.0 percent or more were recorded by nonmetallic mineral products; wood products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and primary metals. Among nondurable goods industries, the index for textile and product mills gained 1.9 percent and the index for petroleum and coal products rose 1.3 percent, but the index for apparel and leather fell 2.6 percent. The output of other manufacturing (publishing and logging) fell 0.6 percent after having dropped a similar amount in each of the previous two months.
The decline of 1.5 percent in mining output in October reflected sizable reductions both in the indexes for crude oil extraction and for oil and gas well drilling and servicing. Mining output in October was 6.9 percent below its level of a year earlier. The index for utilities dropped 2.5 percent in October; a decrease for electric utilities was partly offset by an increase for natural gas utilities.
The capacity utilization rate for manufacturing rose 0.2 percentage point in October to 76.4 percent, a rate 2.1 percentage points below its long-run average. The capacity utilization rate for durable goods industries, at 76.2 percent, was 0.7 percentage point below its long-run average; the rate for nondurable goods industries, at 77.9 percent, was 2.5 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) decreased 0.3 percentage point in October, to 60.2 percent. The utilization rate for mines fell 1.4 percentage points to 80.5 percent, and the rate for utilities decreased 2.1 percentage points to 77.8 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.
