Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
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Industrial production rose 0.4 percent in March and was little changed in the first quarter, increasing at an annual rate of 0.2 percent. In March, manufacturing and mining output each fell 0.5 percent. The index for utilities jumped 8.4 percent, as the return to more seasonal weather after a mild February boosted the demand for heating. At 103.0 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in March was 0.5 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization moved up to 79.8 percent in March, a rate that is 0.1 percentage point above its long-run (1972–2022) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Industrial production | 2017=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
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2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | Mar. '22 to Mar. '23 |
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Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[p] | Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[p] | ||
Total index | 103.4 | 103.1 | 101.5 | 102.4 | 102.6 | 103.0 | -.1 | -.3 | -1.5 | .9 | .2 | .4 | .5 |
Previous estimates | 103.4 | 103.0 | 101.6 | 102.0 | 102.0 | -.2 | -.3 | -1.4 | .4 | .0 | |||
Major market groups | |||||||||||||
Final Products | 102.6 | 102.2 | 101.3 | 101.4 | 101.5 | 102.0 | .4 | -.4 | -.9 | .0 | .2 | .5 | .4 |
Consumer goods | 103.2 | 103.1 | 102.4 | 102.1 | 102.6 | 103.5 | .5 | -.1 | -.7 | -.3 | .4 | .9 | .1 |
Business equipment | 98.6 | 97.5 | 95.9 | 97.1 | 96.6 | 95.6 | .4 | -1.1 | -1.6 | 1.2 | -.5 | -1.0 | 1.2 |
Nonindustrial supplies | 102.2 | 102.1 | 100.0 | 101.2 | 101.2 | 101.5 | -.2 | -.1 | -2.1 | 1.2 | .1 | .3 | -1.3 |
Construction | 103.4 | 103.0 | 101.2 | 104.0 | 103.9 | 102.0 | -.4 | -.4 | -1.7 | 2.7 | -.1 | -1.8 | -2.7 |
Materials | 104.5 | 104.1 | 102.1 | 103.7 | 104.0 | 104.4 | -.5 | -.4 | -1.9 | 1.6 | .3 | .3 | 1.2 |
Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 100.8 | 100.1 | 98.0 | 99.4 | 100.0 | 99.5 | .1 | -.7 | -2.1 | 1.5 | .6 | -.5 | -1.1 |
Previous estimates | 100.7 | 100.0 | 98.2 | 99.5 | 99.6 | .1 | -.7 | -1.9 | 1.4 | .1 | |||
Mining | 117.4 | 116.4 | 113.8 | 118.3 | 117.1 | 116.6 | .2 | -.9 | -2.2 | 4.0 | -1.0 | -.5 | 5.4 |
Utilities | 102.4 | 105.8 | 109.2 | 101.4 | 100.6 | 109.0 | -2.4 | 3.4 | 3.2 | -7.2 | -.7 | 8.4 | 4.2 |
Capacity utilization | Percent of capacity | Capacity growth |
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---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Average 1972- 2022 |
1988- 89 high |
1990- 91 low |
1994- 95 high |
2009 low |
2022 Mar. |
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2022 | 2023 | Mar. '22 to Mar. '23 |
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Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[p] | ||||||||
Total industry | 79.7 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.0 | 66.6 | 80.5 | 80.6 | 80.3 | 78.9 | 79.5 | 79.6 | 79.8 | 1.4 |
Previous estimates | 80.6 | 80.2 | 79.0 | 79.2 | 79.1 | ||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.2 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.6 | 63.4 | 79.9 | 79.5 | 78.9 | 77.2 | 78.3 | 78.6 | 78.1 | 1.1 |
Previous estimates | 79.5 | 78.9 | 77.3 | 78.3 | 78.3 | ||||||||
Mining | 86.4 | 86.3 | 84.3 | 88.6 | 78.9 | 88.2 | 92.1 | 91.1 | 89.1 | 92.5 | 91.6 | 91.1 | 2.0 |
Utilities | 84.7 | 93.2 | 84.7 | 93.2 | 78.1 | 74.7 | 71.8 | 74.0 | 76.1 | 70.4 | 69.7 | 75.3 | 3.4 |
Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
Crude | 85.6 | 87.9 | 84.8 | 90.0 | 76.9 | 88.1 | 89.9 | 88.9 | 86.2 | 89.4 | 89.4 | 89.3 | 1.4 |
Primary and semifinished | 80.2 | 86.5 | 78.0 | 87.8 | 63.6 | 79.7 | 78.4 | 78.6 | 77.5 | 76.8 | 77.0 | 78.0 | 1.4 |
Finished | 76.7 | 83.4 | 77.5 | 80.7 | 66.3 | 77.6 | 78.2 | 77.5 | 76.5 | 77.7 | 77.5 | 77.0 | 1.6 |
Market Groups
The major market groups posted mixed results in March. Nondurable consumer goods, business supplies, and energy materials all recorded notable gains as a result of the jump in the output of utilities. Defense and space equipment posted the only other gain, increasing 0.8 percent. Construction supplies recorded the largest drop (1.8 percent), followed by business equipment (1.0 percent), durable consumer goods (0.9 percent), and non-energy materials (0.5 percent).
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output decreased 0.5 percent in March and was 1.1 percent below its year-earlier level. For the first quarter as a whole, the manufacturing sector edged up 0.3 percent at an annual rate. The indexes for durable manufacturing and nondurable manufacturing moved down 0.9 percent and 0.1 percent in March, respectively, while the index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) fell 0.7 percent. Most durables industries posted losses; wood products posted the largest drop, of 2.9 percent, followed by nonmetallic mineral products, which fell 2.6 percent. Within nondurables, gains of at least 1 percent were registered by apparel and leather and by petroleum and coal products; chemicals posted the largest loss, at 0.9 percent.
Mining output slipped 0.5 percent in March, with declines in the indexes for oil and gas extraction, other mining, and support activities. The output of utilities jumped 8.4 percent, with advances for both electric and natural gas utilities.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing moved down 0.5 percentage point in March to 78.1 percent, a rate that is 0.1 percentage point below its long-run average. The operating rate for mining fell 0.5 percentage point to 91.1 percent, while the operating rate for utilities jumped 5.6 percentage points to 75.3 percent. The rate for mining was 4.7 percentage points above its long-run average, while the rate for utilities remained substantially below its long-run average.
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 March 28, 2023. New annual benchmark data for manufacturing for 2021 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. 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 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