Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
Current Release PDF ASCII RSS Data Download
Industrial production increased 0.9 percent in July after moving up 0.2 percent in June. In July, manufacturing output rose 1.4 percent. About half of the gain in factory output is attributable to a jump of 11.2 percent for motor vehicles and parts, as a number of vehicle manufacturers trimmed or canceled their typical July shutdowns. Despite the large increase last month, vehicle assemblies continued to be constrained by a persistent shortage of semiconductors; the production of motor vehicles and parts in July was about 3-1/2 percent below its recent peak in January 2021. The output of utilities decreased 2.1 percent in July, while the index for mining rose 1.2 percent.
At 101.1 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in July was 6.6 percent above its year-earlier level but 0.2 percent below its pre-pandemic (February 2020) level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector rose 0.7 percentage point in July to 76.1 percent, a rate that is 3.5 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2020) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Industrial production | 2017=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | 2021 | July '20 to July '21 |
|||||||||||
Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[r] | May[r] | June[r] | July[p] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[r] | May[r] | June[r] | July[p] | ||
Total index | 96.4 | 99.1 | 99.2 | 100.0 | 100.2 | 101.1 | -3.0 | 2.8 | .0 | .8 | .2 | .9 | 6.6 |
Previous estimates | 96.4 | 98.9 | 99.0 | 99.7 | 100.1 | -3.1 | 2.7 | .0 | .7 | .4 | |||
Major market groups | |||||||||||||
Final Products | 98.0 | 99.7 | 98.9 | 99.9 | 99.6 | 101.1 | -2.0 | 1.7 | -.9 | 1.1 | -.3 | 1.6 | 5.5 |
Consumer goods | 98.7 | 99.9 | 99.4 | 100.3 | 99.8 | 100.8 | -2.1 | 1.2 | -.5 | 1.0 | -.5 | 1.0 | 2.2 |
Business equipment | 91.3 | 94.0 | 92.2 | 93.8 | 93.2 | 95.8 | -2.8 | 2.9 | -1.9 | 1.7 | -.6 | 2.8 | 9.7 |
Nonindustrial supplies | 94.3 | 96.8 | 96.7 | 97.1 | 96.7 | 97.5 | -2.4 | 2.7 | -.2 | .5 | -.4 | .8 | 7.1 |
Construction | 97.1 | 101.6 | 100.2 | 99.6 | 98.5 | 99.5 | -3.9 | 4.7 | -1.4 | -.6 | -1.1 | .9 | 6.3 |
Materials | 95.4 | 99.2 | 100.2 | 100.9 | 101.8 | 102.2 | -4.2 | 3.9 | 1.0 | .7 | .9 | .4 | 7.4 |
Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 94.6 | 97.7 | 97.4 | 98.5 | 98.2 | 99.5 | -3.7 | 3.4 | -.3 | 1.1 | -.3 | 1.4 | 7.4 |
Previous estimates | 94.5 | 97.5 | 97.1 | 97.9 | 97.9 | -3.7 | 3.1 | -.4 | .9 | -.1 | |||
Mining | 94.2 | 105.3 | 105.0 | 106.6 | 107.2 | 108.4 | -8.9 | 11.9 | -.3 | 1.5 | .5 | 1.2 | 12.1 |
Utilities | 108.3 | 99.0 | 101.8 | 100.3 | 103.3 | 101.2 | 7.4 | -8.6 | 2.8 | -1.5 | 3.1 | -2.1 | -3.8 |
Capacity utilization | Percent of capacity | Capacity growth |
|||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Average 1972- 2020 |
1988- 89 high |
1990- 91 low |
1994- 95 high |
2009 low |
2020 July |
||||||||
2021 | July '20 to July '21 |
||||||||||||
Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[r] | May[r] | June[r] | July[p] | ||||||||
Total industry | 79.6 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.1 | 66.6 | 71.5 | 72.7 | 74.7 | 74.7 | 75.3 | 75.4 | 76.1 | .1 |
Previous estimates | 72.7 | 74.6 | 74.6 | 75.1 | 75.4 | ||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.2 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.7 | 63.5 | 71.2 | 72.8 | 75.2 | 75.0 | 75.8 | 75.5 | 76.6 | -.2 |
Previous estimates | 72.7 | 75.0 | 74.7 | 75.4 | 75.3 | ||||||||
Mining | 86.2 | 86.0 | 83.8 | 88.3 | 78.3 | 67.4 | 66.4 | 74.4 | 74.3 | 75.5 | 75.9 | 76.9 | -1.7 |
Utilities | 85.0 | 93.1 | 84.6 | 93.2 | 78.0 | 77.5 | 78.5 | 71.6 | 73.5 | 72.3 | 74.3 | 72.6 | 2.7 |
Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
Crude | 85.4 | 87.7 | 84.6 | 89.7 | 76.5 | 69.4 | 66.4 | 73.9 | 75.1 | 77.1 | 77.4 | 78.1 | -1.0 |
Primary and semifinished | 80.2 | 86.5 | 78.1 | 87.9 | 63.5 | 71.7 | 74.0 | 74.2 | 74.6 | 74.5 | 75.0 | 75.1 | .4 |
Finished | 76.8 | 83.4 | 77.5 | 80.7 | 66.5 | 71.9 | 73.7 | 75.7 | 74.8 | 75.6 | 75.2 | 76.6 | -.2 |
Market Groups
Most major market groups posted increases in July. The step-up in the output of motor vehicles and parts contributed to large increases in consumer durables, business equipment, and durable materials. The output of defense and space equipment also rose strongly, while the indexes for non-energy nondurable consumer goods, construction supplies, business supplies, and nondurable materials posted more modest gains. In contrast, the indexes for consumer energy products and energy materials both declined.
Industry Groups
In July, manufacturing output increased 1.4 percent; excluding the large gain in motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing output moved up 0.7 percent. The index for overall manufacturing in July was 0.8 percent above its pre-pandemic level. Production of durable goods rose 2.4 percent in July. In addition to the increase for motor vehicles and parts, gains of 1.5 percent or more were recorded by machinery; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment; and miscellaneous manufacturing. The output of nondurable goods rose 0.3 percent; the largest increases were recorded by textile and product mills and by plastics and rubber products. The output of other manufacturing (publishing and logging) increased 0.2 percent. The index for mining advanced 1.2 percent, about the same pace it has averaged over the past 12 months. The index for utilities fell 2.1 percent in July, as an unusually hot June gave way to a July with temperatures somewhat below normal.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing increased 1.1 percentage points in July to 76.6 percent. The operating rate for mining rose 1.0 percentage point to 76.9 percent, while the operating rate for utilities decreased 1.7 percentage points to 72.6 percent. The rates for all three sectors remained below their long-run averages.
Release Dates for 2022
In 2022, the G.17 release on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization will be published at 9:15 a.m. on January 14, February 16, March 17, April 15, May 17, June 17, July 15, August 16, September 15, October 18, November 16, and December 15.
Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
The Federal Reserve Board issued its annual revision to the indexes of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization on May 28, 2021. The base year for the revised indexes is 2017. New annual benchmark data for manufacturing for 2017 through 2019 were incorporated, as well as other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels). The weights for market-group splits of the industry-level indexes were updated with information from the 2012 benchmark input-output accounts from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The updated IP indexes included revisions to the monthly production indicator (either product data or input data) and to seasonal factors for each industry. In addition, the estimation methods for some series were changed. Any 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 for manufacturing through the fourth quarter of 2020 from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization, 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 of Selected 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
- Table 15: Industrial Production: Reliability Estimates