Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
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Industrial production rose 0.5 percent in April after moving sideways the previous two months. In April, manufacturing increased 1.0 percent, bolstered by a strong gain in the output of motor vehicles and parts; factory output excluding motor vehicles and parts moved up 0.4 percent. The index for mining rose 0.6 percent, while the index for utilities dropped 3.1 percent, as milder temperatures in April lowered demand for heating. At 103.0 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in April was 0.2 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization edged up to 79.7 percent in April, a rate that is equal to its long-run (1972–2022) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Industrial production | 2017=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | Apr. '22 to Apr. '23 |
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Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[p] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[p] | ||
Total index | 103.1 | 101.5 | 102.5 | 102.5 | 102.5 | 103.0 | -.3 | -1.5 | 1.0 | .0 | .0 | .5 | .2 |
Previous estimates | 103.1 | 101.5 | 102.4 | 102.6 | 103.0 | -.3 | -1.5 | .9 | .2 | .4 | |||
Major market groups | |||||||||||||
Final Products | 102.2 | 101.3 | 101.3 | 101.1 | 101.4 | 102.2 | -.4 | -.9 | .0 | -.2 | .3 | .7 | .0 |
Consumer goods | 103.1 | 102.4 | 102.1 | 102.2 | 103.0 | 103.6 | -.2 | -.6 | -.3 | .1 | .8 | .6 | -.2 |
Business equipment | 97.5 | 95.8 | 96.9 | 96.0 | 94.7 | 95.8 | -1.1 | -1.7 | 1.1 | -.9 | -1.4 | 1.2 | .2 |
Nonindustrial supplies | 102.1 | 100.0 | 101.2 | 100.8 | 100.8 | 100.8 | -.2 | -2.1 | 1.2 | -.4 | .0 | .0 | -2.1 |
Construction | 102.9 | 101.0 | 104.0 | 103.1 | 100.9 | 101.3 | -.5 | -1.8 | 2.9 | -.9 | -2.1 | .4 | -3.1 |
Materials | 104.1 | 102.1 | 104.0 | 104.3 | 104.1 | 104.5 | -.3 | -1.9 | 1.8 | .3 | -.2 | .4 | 1.2 |
Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 100.0 | 97.9 | 99.4 | 99.7 | 98.9 | 99.8 | -.7 | -2.1 | 1.6 | .3 | -.8 | 1.0 | -.9 |
Previous estimates | 100.1 | 98.0 | 99.4 | 100.0 | 99.5 | -.7 | -2.1 | 1.5 | .6 | -.5 | |||
Mining | 116.6 | 114.4 | 119.0 | 118.1 | 116.7 | 117.4 | -.7 | -1.9 | 4.0 | -.7 | -1.3 | .6 | 5.6 |
Utilities | 105.8 | 109.2 | 101.4 | 100.6 | 109.0 | 105.6 | 3.4 | 3.2 | -7.2 | -.8 | 8.4 | -3.1 | -.4 |
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 Apr. |
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2022 | 2023 | Apr. '22 to Apr. '23 |
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Nov.[r] | Dec.[r] | Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[p] | ||||||||
Total industry | 79.7 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.0 | 66.6 | 80.7 | 80.3 | 78.9 | 79.6 | 79.5 | 79.4 | 79.7 | 1.5 |
Previous estimates | 80.3 | 78.9 | 79.5 | 79.6 | 79.8 | ||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.2 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.6 | 63.4 | 79.9 | 78.9 | 77.1 | 78.2 | 78.4 | 77.6 | 78.3 | 1.1 |
Previous estimates | 78.9 | 77.2 | 78.3 | 78.6 | 78.1 | ||||||||
Mining | 86.4 | 86.3 | 84.3 | 88.6 | 78.9 | 88.4 | 91.3 | 89.5 | 93.0 | 92.4 | 91.2 | 91.8 | 1.7 |
Utilities | 84.7 | 93.2 | 84.7 | 93.2 | 78.1 | 75.5 | 74.0 | 76.1 | 70.4 | 69.7 | 75.3 | 72.7 | 3.4 |
Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
Crude | 85.6 | 87.9 | 84.8 | 90.0 | 76.9 | 88.1 | 89.1 | 86.5 | 89.9 | 90.2 | 89.4 | 89.8 | 1.2 |
Primary and semifinished | 80.2 | 86.5 | 78.0 | 87.8 | 63.6 | 79.8 | 78.6 | 77.5 | 76.8 | 76.8 | 77.6 | 77.3 | 1.5 |
Finished | 76.7 | 83.4 | 77.5 | 80.7 | 66.3 | 77.9 | 77.4 | 76.5 | 77.5 | 77.2 | 76.3 | 77.3 | 1.7 |
Market Groups
Most major market groups recorded growth in April. The production of consumer durables was boosted by an 8.4 percent jump in the output of automotive products. Elsewhere, there were gains in business equipment (1.2 percent), defense and space equipment (1.1 percent), non-energy materials (0.8 percent), and construction supplies (0.4 percent). In contrast, nondurable consumer goods, business supplies, and energy materials all posted slight declines for the month.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output increased 1.0 percent in April; however, the growth rates for both February and March were revised down 0.3 percentage point. All told, the index for manufacturing in April was 0.9 percent below its year-earlier level. Durable and nondurable manufacturing advanced 1.4 percent and 0.6 percent in April, respectively. Other manufacturing (publishing and logging) ticked down 0.1 percent. Industry groups within durable manufacturing posted somewhat mixed results, with the largest increase coming from motor vehicles and parts (9.3 percent) and the largest decrease coming from miscellaneous manufacturing (1.4 percent). Within nondurables, plastics and rubber products recorded the largest gain (1.2 percent), while apparel and leather recorded the largest loss (0.8 percent).
Mining output climbed 0.6 percent in April, with growth primarily coming from oil and gas extraction. The output of utilities declined 3.1 percent, as both electric and natural gas utilities production moved down.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing moved up 0.7 percentage point in April to 78.3 percent, a rate that is 0.1 percentage point above its long-run (1972–2022) average. The operating rate for mining rose 0.6 percentage point to 91.8 percent, while the operating rate for utilities fell 2.6 percentage points to 72.7 percent. The rate for mining was 5.4 percentage points above its long-run average, while the rate for utilities remained well 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