Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
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Industrial production was unchanged in January after falling 0.6 percent and 1.0 percent in November and December, respectively. In January, manufacturing output moved up 1.0 percent and mining output rose 2.0 percent following two months with substantial decreases for each sector. The output of utilities fell 9.9 percent in January, as a swing from unseasonably cool weather in December to unseasonably warm weather in January depressed the demand for heating. At 103.0 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in January was 0.8 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization declined 0.1 percentage point in January to 78.3 percent, a rate that is 1.3 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2022) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Industrial production | 2017=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | 2023 Jan.[p] |
2022 | 2023 Jan.[p] |
Jan. '22 to Jan. '23 |
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Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | ||||
Total index | 104.4 | 104.6 | 104.6 | 104.0 | 102.9 | 103.0 | -.1 | .2 | .0 | -.6 | -1.0 | .0 | .8 |
Previous estimates | 104.5 | 104.8 | 104.8 | 104.2 | 103.4 | .0 | .3 | .0 | -.6 | -.7 | |||
Major market groups | |||||||||||||
Final Products | 104.9 | 104.7 | 105.4 | 104.8 | 104.1 | 104.0 | .3 | -.2 | .7 | -.7 | -.6 | -.1 | 1.1 |
Consumer goods | 104.6 | 104.0 | 104.9 | 104.3 | 104.1 | 103.4 | .1 | -.5 | .8 | -.6 | -.2 | -.7 | -.9 |
Business equipment | 98.0 | 98.5 | 98.9 | 97.6 | 95.7 | 96.9 | .5 | .5 | .4 | -1.3 | -2.0 | 1.2 | 3.7 |
Nonindustrial supplies | 101.8 | 101.9 | 101.7 | 101.4 | 99.9 | 100.2 | -.4 | .1 | -.2 | -.3 | -1.5 | .2 | -1.1 |
Construction | 104.1 | 104.3 | 104.2 | 103.8 | 102.5 | 103.3 | -.3 | .1 | .0 | -.4 | -1.3 | .8 | -.4 |
Materials | 104.7 | 105.2 | 104.8 | 104.1 | 102.9 | 103.0 | -.3 | .5 | -.5 | -.6 | -1.2 | .1 | 1.1 |
Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 101.5 | 101.5 | 101.9 | 101.1 | 99.3 | 100.2 | .0 | .1 | .4 | -.8 | -1.8 | 1.0 | .3 |
Previous estimates | 101.7 | 101.9 | 102.2 | 101.1 | 99.8 | .2 | .2 | .3 | -1.1 | -1.3 | |||
Mining | 116.9 | 119.2 | 119.2 | 117.6 | 116.2 | 118.5 | .0 | 1.9 | .0 | -1.4 | -1.2 | 2.0 | 8.6 |
Utilities | 106.4 | 104.2 | 101.5 | 104.3 | 109.6 | 98.7 | -1.3 | -2.1 | -2.6 | 2.7 | 5.1 | -9.9 | -8.9 |
Capacity utilization | Percent of capacity | Capacity growth |
|||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Average 1972- 2022 |
1988- 89 high |
1990- 91 low |
1994- 95 high |
2009 low |
2022 Jan. |
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2022 | 2023 Jan.[p] |
Jan. '22 to Jan. '23 |
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Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | |||||||||
Total industry | 79.6 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.0 | 66.6 | 78.9 | 79.8 | 79.9 | 79.8 | 79.3 | 78.4 | 78.3 | 1.6 |
Previous estimates | 79.9 | 80.1 | 80.0 | 79.4 | 78.8 | ||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.2 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.7 | 63.4 | 78.3 | 79.0 | 79.0 | 79.2 | 78.5 | 77.1 | 77.7 | 1.0 |
Previous estimates | 79.2 | 79.3 | 79.5 | 78.5 | 77.5 | ||||||||
Mining | 86.3 | 86.2 | 84.3 | 88.6 | 78.9 | 84.6 | 88.4 | 89.9 | 89.8 | 88.5 | 87.4 | 89.0 | 3.2 |
Utilities | 84.5 | 92.9 | 84.5 | 92.9 | 78.0 | 77.3 | 74.7 | 73.1 | 71.0 | 72.8 | 76.4 | 68.6 | 2.6 |
Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
Crude | 85.5 | 87.9 | 84.8 | 90.0 | 76.9 | 83.7 | 86.7 | 87.6 | 87.4 | 86.3 | 84.9 | 86.4 | 2.4 |
Primary and semifinished | 80.1 | 86.5 | 78.0 | 87.8 | 63.5 | 78.4 | 78.2 | 78.0 | 77.5 | 77.4 | 76.9 | 75.2 | 1.1 |
Finished | 76.8 | 83.3 | 77.5 | 80.7 | 66.4 | 77.7 | 78.7 | 78.6 | 79.2 | 78.4 | 77.4 | 78.5 | 1.6 |
Market Groups
Consumer energy products, commercial energy products, and energy materials all recorded substantial decreases because of the drop in the output of utilities. The output of most other market groups advanced. The indexes for consumer non-energy nondurables, business equipment, defense and space equipment, and nondurable materials all rose more than 1 percent; the indexes for consumer durables, construction supplies, non-energy business supplies, and durable materials increased between 1/2 and 1 percent.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output rose 1.0 percent in January. Durable, nondurable, and other manufacturing recorded advances of 0.8 percent, 1.1 percent, and 2.2 percent, respectively. Within durables, gains of at least 1 percent were recorded by nonmetallic mineral products, by machinery, by computer and electronic products, by electrical equipment, appliances, and components, and by aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment; wood products and furniture posted the only losses. Gains of more than 1-1/2 percent were posted by chemicals and by food, beverage, and tobacco products, the two largest industry groups within nondurables; declines in printing and support, in petroleum and coal products, and in plastics and rubber products tempered the overall gain for the sector.
Mining output rose 2.0 percent in January, with gains in most of its components other than oil and gas well drilling; the output of mines was 8.6 percent above its reading of 12 months earlier. The output of utilities dropped 9.9 percent in January, with decreases for both electric and natural gas utilities.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing increased 0.6 percentage point in January to 77.7 percent, a rate that is 0.5 percentage point below its long-run average. The operating rate for mining rose 1.6 percentage points to 89.0 percent, while the operating rate for utilities fell 7.8 percentage points to 68.6 percent. The rate for mining was 2.7 percentage points above its long-run average. The rate for utilities was the lowest in the history of the index (since 1972).
Note: Preliminary Estimates of Industrial Capacity
The data in this release include preliminary estimates of industrial capacity for 2023 (table 8). Measured from fourth quarter to fourth quarter, total industrial capacity is projected to rise 1.4 percent this year, a slightly slower increase compared with 2022. Manufacturing capacity is expected to move up 1.2 percent in 2023 after increasing 1.0 percent in 2022. Capacity in the mining sector is estimated to rise 0.5 percent in 2023 after jumping 3.5 percent in 2022. Capacity at electric and natural gas utilities is projected to increase 3.0 percent in 2023 after expanding 2.6 percent in 2022.
Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
The Federal Reserve Board plans to issue its annual revision to the indexes of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization in the spring of 2023. New annual benchmark data for manufacturing for 2021 will be incorporated, as well as 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 for manufacturing through the fourth quarter of 2022 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