Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
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Industrial production moved up 0.1 percent in December and declined 3.1 percent at an annual rate in the fourth quarter. Manufacturing output edged up 0.1 percent in December after increasing 0.2 percent in November. The index for utilities declined 1.0 percent in December, while the index for mining rose 0.9 percent. At 102.5 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in December was 1 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization was unchanged in December at 78.6 percent, a rate that is 1.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2022) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Industrial production | 2017=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
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2023 | 2023 | Dec. '22 to Dec. '23 |
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July[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[p] | July[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[p] | ||
Total index | 103.2 | 103.2 | 103.3 | 102.5 | 102.4 | 102.5 | .9 | .0 | .1 | -.8 | .0 | .1 | 1.0 |
Previous estimates | 103.2 | 103.2 | 103.3 | 102.4 | 102.7 | .9 | .0 | .1 | -.9 | .2 | |||
Major market groups | |||||||||||||
Final Products | 101.8 | 102.0 | 101.6 | 100.6 | 100.8 | 100.9 | 1.2 | .1 | -.4 | -1.0 | .3 | .1 | -.4 |
Consumer goods | 102.4 | 102.6 | 102.4 | 101.1 | 101.2 | 101.4 | 1.3 | .2 | -.2 | -1.2 | .1 | .2 | -1.0 |
Business equipment | 97.0 | 97.0 | 95.9 | 95.1 | 96.0 | 95.8 | .9 | .0 | -1.1 | -.9 | 1.0 | -.2 | -.1 |
Nonindustrial supplies | 100.0 | 100.2 | 100.3 | 100.3 | 99.8 | 99.6 | .2 | .2 | .1 | .0 | -.5 | -.2 | -.4 |
Construction | 101.1 | 100.4 | 101.1 | 100.7 | 100.1 | 100.0 | -.1 | -.8 | .7 | -.4 | -.6 | -.1 | -1.0 |
Materials | 105.5 | 105.4 | 105.9 | 104.9 | 104.8 | 104.9 | .9 | -.1 | .5 | -1.0 | -.1 | .1 | 2.7 |
Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 99.5 | 99.5 | 99.6 | 98.8 | 99.0 | 99.1 | .4 | .1 | .1 | -.8 | .2 | .1 | 1.2 |
Previous estimates | 99.5 | 99.5 | 99.6 | 98.8 | 99.2 | .4 | .0 | .1 | -.8 | .3 | |||
Mining | 120.0 | 119.3 | 120.3 | 119.2 | 118.1 | 119.2 | .7 | -.6 | .9 | -.9 | -1.0 | .9 | 4.3 |
Utilities | 107.0 | 107.7 | 106.7 | 105.7 | 105.0 | 103.9 | 4.9 | .7 | -.9 | -.9 | -.7 | -1.0 | -4.9 |
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 Dec. |
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2023 | Dec. '22 to Dec. '23 |
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July[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[r] | Nov.[r] | Dec.[p] | ||||||||
Total industry | 79.7 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.0 | 66.6 | 78.9 | 79.5 | 79.5 | 79.5 | 78.7 | 78.6 | 78.6 | 1.4 |
Previous estimates | 79.6 | 79.5 | 79.5 | 78.7 | 78.8 | ||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.2 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.6 | 63.4 | 77.1 | 77.8 | 77.7 | 77.7 | 77.0 | 77.1 | 77.1 | 1.3 |
Previous estimates | 77.8 | 77.7 | 77.7 | 77.0 | 77.2 | ||||||||
Mining | 86.4 | 86.3 | 84.3 | 88.6 | 78.9 | 89.4 | 94.0 | 93.6 | 94.4 | 93.7 | 92.9 | 93.8 | -.5 |
Utilities | 84.7 | 93.2 | 84.7 | 93.2 | 78.1 | 76.1 | 73.1 | 73.4 | 72.5 | 71.6 | 70.9 | 70.0 | 3.5 |
Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
Crude | 85.6 | 87.9 | 84.8 | 90.0 | 76.9 | 86.5 | 91.4 | 91.3 | 92.1 | 91.5 | 91.1 | 91.9 | -.5 |
Primary and semifinished | 80.2 | 86.5 | 78.0 | 87.8 | 63.6 | 77.4 | 77.1 | 77.2 | 77.2 | 76.6 | 76.4 | 76.0 | 1.4 |
Finished | 76.7 | 83.4 | 77.5 | 80.7 | 66.3 | 76.5 | 76.6 | 76.4 | 76.0 | 75.1 | 75.2 | 75.2 | 2.2 |
Market Groups
The major market groups posted mixed results in December. The production of consumer goods moved up 0.2 percent, largely from gains in durable consumer goods; the production of nondurable consumer goods was flat. The indexes of business equipment, construction supplies, and business supplies all registered slight declines in December. The output of defense and space equipment rose 0.5 percent in December and recorded a gain of 9.1 percent at an annual rate for the fourth quarter. Materials output edged up in December, as a slight decline in its non-energy component was more than offset by a gain of 0.5 percent in its energy component.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output ticked up 0.1 percent in December but declined 2.2 percent (annual rate) in the fourth quarter. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, factory output declined 0.1 percent in December and 0.3 percent (annual rate) in the fourth quarter. In December, the index for durable manufacturing fell 0.4 percent, while the index for nondurable manufacturing rose 0.6 percent. The index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) declined 1.1 percent. Within durables, declines of more than 1 percent were recorded by wood products, by fabricated metal products, by machinery, and by electrical equipment, appliances, and components. Motor vehicles and parts as well as furniture and related products posted gains of more than 1 percent. Within nondurables, most industries registered gains with the exception of paper and of printing and support.
In December, mining output increased 0.9 percent, and the output of utilities decreased 1.0 percent. For the fourth quarter, the output of mines fell 3.4 percent (annual rate) after increasing in the previous two quarters. The index for utilities dropped 8.2 percent (annual rate) in the fourth quarter after jumping over 15 percent in the previous quarter.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing remained unchanged at 77.1 percent, a rate that is 1.1 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for mining moved up 0.9 percentage point to 93.8 percent, a rate that is 7.4 percentage points above its long-run average. The operating rate for utilities moved down 0.9 percentage point to 70.0 percent, well below its long-run average.
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 tentatively in the first half of 2024. The Economic Census for 2022 will not be available from the U.S. Census Bureau by early 2024, so no new annual benchmark data will be included for manufacturing. Other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels), will be incorporated. 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 2023 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