Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release (272 KB PDF) (ASCII)

Release Date: December 16, 2015

Industrial production declined 0.6 percent in November after decreasing 0.4 percent in October. In November, manufacturing production was unchanged from October. The index for utilities dropped 4.3 percent, as unusually warm weather held down the demand for heating. The index for mining fell 1.1 percent in November, with much of this decrease attributable to sizable declines for coal mining and for oil and gas well drilling and servicing. At 106.5 percent of its 2012 average, total industrial production in November was 1.2 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector declined 0.5 percentage point in November to 77.0 percent, a rate that is 3.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2014) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary

Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2012=100 Percent change
2015 2015 Nov. '14 to
Nov. '15
June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[p] June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[p]
       
Total index 106.7 107.5 107.7 107.5 107.1 106.5 .0 .8 .2 -.1 -.4 -.6 -1.2
Previous estimates 106.7 107.5 107.6 107.4 107.2   .0 .8 .1 -.2 -.2    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 103.6 104.8 105.3 105.0 104.5 104.2 -.1 1.2 .4 -.3 -.4 -.3 -.9
Consumer goods 105.0 106.9 107.2 107.1 106.6 106.1 .0 1.8 .3 -.1 -.5 -.5 .8
Business equipment 106.7 106.8 107.5 106.9 106.5 106.6 -.1 .1 .6 -.5 -.4 .2 -.7
Nonindustrial supplies 105.6 105.4 106.1 106.0 106.7 106.1 .2 -.1 .6 -.1 .7 -.5 .3
Construction 109.4 109.7 110.3 108.9 111.5 111.2 .5 .3 .6 -1.3 2.3 -.2 2.1
Materials 109.7 110.4 110.1 110.2 109.4 108.5 -.1 .7 -.3 .0 -.7 -.8 -2.0
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 105.1 106.1 106.1 105.9 106.2 106.2 -.1 1.0 -.1 -.2 .3 .0 .9
Previous estimates 105.0 106.1 106.0 105.9 106.3   -.1 1.0 -.2 -.1 .4    
Mining 115.1 116.5 116.8 115.3 112.5 111.3 -.1 1.2 .3 -1.3 -2.4 -1.1 -8.2
Utilities 103.1 101.7 103.3 104.9 102.0 97.6 .9 -1.4 1.6 1.6 -2.8 -4.3 -7.6

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2014
1988-
89
high
1990-
91
low
1994-
95
high
 
2009
low
 
2014
Nov.
   
2015 Nov. '14 to
Nov. '15
June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[p]
       
Total industry 80.1 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.9 79.0 77.5 78.0 78.1 77.9 77.5 77.0 1.5
Previous estimates             77.5 78.0 78.0 77.7 77.5    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.5 85.6 77.3 84.6 63.9 76.4 75.8 76.5 76.4 76.1 76.3 76.2 1.2
Previous estimates             75.8 76.5 76.3 76.2 76.4    
Mining 87.5 86.2 83.8 88.7 79.0 90.1 83.2 84.0 84.0 82.7 80.5 79.4 4.2
Utilities 85.9 92.9 84.3 93.3 78.5 81.2 78.9 77.8 79.0 80.2 77.9 74.5 .8
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 86.3 87.6 84.3 89.8 76.9 87.7 82.6 83.2 83.2 82.3 80.9 80.1 3.2
Primary and semifinished 80.7 86.5 78.1 87.8 64.2 77.1 76.1 76.4 76.3 76.4 76.4 75.3 1.0
Finished 77.0 83.4 77.4 80.7 66.7 76.6 75.9 76.7 76.9 76.5 76.2 76.4 1.5
r Revised. p Preliminary.
Market Groups

Among the major market groups, only business equipment posted a gain in November. The production of consumer goods decreased 0.5 percent, as consumer durables and nondurables registered reductions of 0.2 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. Within consumer nondurables, a gain of 0.7 percent for its non-energy component was outweighed by a drop of 4.8 percent for consumer energy products. The indexes for defense and space equipment and for construction supplies each declined 0.2 percent, while the output of business supplies moved down 0.7 percent. The index for materials fell 0.8 percent, as decreases for durable materials and energy materials were partly offset by a gain for nondurable materials.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output was unchanged in November, as the output of nondurable goods gained 0.5 percent, but the production of durable goods declined 0.2 percent and the index for other manufacturing industries (publishing and logging) moved down 1.7 percent. Most nondurable goods industries recorded increases, with the largest gain posted by the food, beverage, and tobacco products category. Among durable goods industries, losses of 1.0 percent or more were recorded by primary metals; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and motor vehicles and parts. The production of nonmetallic mineral products increased 1.2 percent for the largest gain among durables. Mining output declined 1.1 percent in November and was 8.2 percent below its year-earlier level, with the index for oil and gas well drilling and servicing at less than half of its year-earlier level.

The capacity utilization rate for manufacturing edged down to 76.2 percent, a rate 2.3 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for durable goods manufacturing moved down 0.3 percentage point, while the operating rate for nondurable goods manufacturing moved up 0.4 percentage point. Utilization for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) decreased 0.9 percentage point. The operating rate for mines dropped 1.1 percentage points to 79.4 percent, while capacity utilization for utilities fell 3.4 percentage points to 74.5 percent.

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 around the end of the first quarter of 2016. New annual benchmark data for 2014 for manufacturing will be incorporated, as will other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels). The updated IP indexes will include revisions to the monthly indicator (either product data or input data) and to seasonal factors for each industry. In addition, the estimation methods for some series may be changed. Any modifications 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 through the fourth quarter of 2015 from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity along with new data on capacity from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other organizations.

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: December 16, 2015