Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release PDF  ASCII RSS DDP

Release Date: June 15, 2018
Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Notice Below

Industrial production edged down 0.1 percent in May after rising 0.9 percent in April. Manufacturing production fell 0.7 percent in May, largely because truck assemblies were disrupted by a major fire at a parts supplier. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, factory output moved down 0.2 percent. The index for mining rose 1.8 percent, its fourth consecutive month of growth; the output of utilities moved up 1.1 percent. At 107.3 percent of its 2012 average, total industrial production was 3.5 percent higher in May than it was a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.2 percentage point in May to 77.9 percent, a rate that is 1.9 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2017) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2012=100 Percent change
2017
Dec.[r] 		2018 2017
Dec.[r] 		2018 May '17 to
May '18
Jan.[r] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[p] Jan.[r] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[p]
       
Total index 105.8 105.4 105.9 106.4 107.4 107.3 .5 -.3 .4 .5 .9 -.1 3.5
Previous estimates 105.7 105.3 105.7 106.5 107.3   .4 -.4 .4 .7 .7    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 101.5 101.7 101.7 102.1 103.2 102.3 .3 .2 .0 .4 1.1 -.9 1.6
Consumer goods 105.2 105.5 105.2 105.7 106.7 105.6 .6 .3 -.3 .4 1.0 -1.0 1.5
Business equipment 98.5 98.6 98.6 98.7 99.8 98.6 -.3 .0 .1 .1 1.1 -1.1 1.0
Nonindustrial supplies 106.6 105.8 106.6 106.6 107.1 107.3 .6 -.8 .7 .0 .5 .1 2.2
Construction 112.9 111.2 114.6 113.4 114.0 114.2 .9 -1.5 3.1 -1.0 .5 .1 3.6
Materials 108.9 108.2 108.9 109.8 110.7 111.3 .5 -.7 .7 .8 .9 .5 5.5
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 102.8 102.3 103.7 103.6 104.2 103.5 .0 -.5 1.4 -.1 .6 -.7 1.7
Previous estimates 102.8 102.1 103.6 103.6 104.1   -.1 -.6 1.4 .0 .5    
Mining 115.1 113.9 117.2 118.8 120.0 122.1 1.1 -1.0 2.9 1.4 1.0 1.8 12.6
Utilities 106.6 108.8 98.4 102.5 105.8 106.9 3.2 2.1 -9.6 4.1 3.2 1.1 4.0
Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2017 		1988-
89
high 		1990-
91
low 		1994-
95
high 		 
2009
low 		 
2017
May 		   
2017
Dec.[r] 		2018 May '17 to
May '18
Jan.[r] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[p]
       
Total industry 79.8 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.7 76.2 77.3 77.0 77.2 77.5 78.1 77.9 1.3
Previous estimates             77.3 76.9 77.1 77.6 78.0    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.3 85.6 77.3 84.6 63.7 74.8 75.2 74.7 75.7 75.5 75.9 75.3 1.0
Previous estimates             75.1 74.6 75.6 75.5 75.8    
Mining 87.0 86.3 84.3 88.6 78.2 84.0 88.6 87.5 89.7 90.5 91.1 92.4 2.4
Utilities 85.3 92.9 84.4 92.9 78.3 77.9 79.9 81.5 73.5 76.4 78.8 79.4 2.0
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 86.0 87.8 84.7 90.0 76.4 84.0 86.9 85.4 87.0 88.0 88.3 89.3 1.8
Primary and semifinished 80.4 86.5 78.1 87.7 63.8 75.2 76.4 76.3 75.4 76.0 76.7 76.4 1.1
Finished 76.9 83.4 77.3 80.7 66.6 74.1 74.3 74.2 75.1 74.7 75.2 74.6 1.3
r Revised. p Preliminary.
Market Groups

The automotive products category within consumer goods, the transit equipment category within business equipment, and the consumer parts category within materials all posted large declines in May because of the lower output of motor vehicles and parts.

Even excluding categories affected by the curtailment for motor vehicles, the indexes for consumer goods and for business equipment decreased 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. A drop in the output of consumer energy products accounted for the bulk of the decline for non-automotive consumer goods, while a dip in the index for industrial and other equipment constituted most of the decline for business equipment.

Construction supplies and business supplies both reported small gains, and the index for defense and space equipment increased for a fifth consecutive month. Despite the drop in the output of consumer parts, the overall index for materials advanced, supported largely by continued growth in energy materials.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output moved down 0.7 percent in May but was 1.7 percent higher than its year-earlier level. The indexes for durables and for other manufacturing industries (publishing and logging) each fell more than 1 percent, while the production of nondurable manufacturing was little changed. Within durables, the drop of 6 1/2 percent for motor vehicles and parts was accompanied by decreases of more than 1 percent for primary metals and for electrical equipment, appliances, and components. Within nondurable manufacturing, all industry groups other than chemicals and printing posted declines.

The output of mining rose in May for the fourth consecutive month and was more than 12 percent above its year-earlier level. The rise in the mining index in May reflected continued gains in the oil and gas sector. The index for utilities went up about 1 percent, as a gain for electric utilities outweighed a drop for gas utilities.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing fell 0.6 percentage point to 75.3 percent in May, a rate that is 3.0 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for durables decreased nearly 1 percentage point, and the rate for nondurables edged down. The utilization rate for mining jumped to 92.4 percent, which is about 5 1/2 percentage points higher than its long-run average. The rate for utilities rose about 1/2 percentage point but was still nearly 6 percentage points below its long-run average.

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board issued its annual revision to the index of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization on March 23, 2018. New annual benchmark data for 2016 for manufacturing were incorporated, as well as other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels). The updated IP indexes included 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 were changed. Modifications to the methods for estimating the output of an industry affected the index from 1972 to the present.

Capacity and capacity utilization were revised to incorporate data through the fourth quarter of 2017 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:

Back to Top
Last Update: June 15, 2018