INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION

Industrial production rose 0.8 percent in April after an increase of 0.6 percent in March. The levels of the output index for January through March were revised upward, and industrial production is now reported to have increased at an annual rate of 5.4 percent in the first quarter. In April, manufacturing production advanced 0.7 percent, and the output indexes for mining and for utilities both increased 0.9 percent. At 112.3 percent of the 2002 average, overall industrial output was 4.7 percent above its April 2005 level. The rate of capacity utilization for total industry climbed 0.5 percentage point, to 81.9 percent, a rate almost 1.0 percentage point above its 1972-2005 average. The factory operating rate, at 80.8 percent, was 1.0 percentage point above its long-run average. The operating rate for mining jumped to 89.8 percent, a rate 2.5 percentage points above its 1972-2005 average. The capacity utilization rate for utilities also increased, but it remained below its long-run average.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION: SUMMARY
Seasonally adjusted

Industrial production	2002=100				Percent change
	2006				2006				Apr. '05 to Apr. '06
	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.
Total index	110.3	110.8	111.4	112.3	-.1	.4	.6	.8	4.7
Previous estimates	110.0	110.6	111.2		-.4	.5	.6
Major market groups
Final Products	111.8	112.3	113.1	113.8	-.5	.5	.7	.6	5.4
Consumer goods	105.4	105.9	106.7	106.9	-1.0	.4	.8	.1	2.7
Business equipment	127.6	128.2	129.1	131.3	1.0	.4	.7	1.8	12.5
Nonindustrial supplies	110.7	110.6	111.2	112.0	-.4	-.1	.6	.7	4.8
Construction	114.1	113.8	114.5	115.0	.9	-.3	.6	.4	7.1
Materials	108.8	109.2	109.8	110.8	.5	.4	.5	1.0	4.1
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below)	113.1	112.8	113.4	114.3	.8	-.3	.5	.7	5.5
Previous estimates	113.0	112.8	113.4		.7	-.1	.5
Mining	97.7	98.4	99.3	100.2	2.3	.7	.9	.9	-.3
Utilities	98.3	104.1	104.8	105.7	-10.0	5.9	.7	.9	2.5

Market Groups

The output of consumer goods edged up 0.1 percent in April. The index of consumer durable goods fell 0.4 percent because of a decline in the output of automotive products. The output of home electronics rose a sharp 2.0 percent after having fallen during the first quarter; the index of appliances, furniture, and carpeting and the index of miscellaneous consumer durables advanced in April as well. The output of consumer nondurable goods increased 0.3 percent, but it was held down by a drop of 1.0 percent in consumer energy products. The output of non-energy nondurable consumer goods was up 0.7 percent. Within this group, the indexes for chemical products and for paper products posted noticeable gains.

The production of business equipment jumped 1.8 percent because of sharp gains in the output of information processing equipment and of industrial and other equipment. Although the index for transit equipment edged down, it remained well above its year-ago level. The output of defense and space equipment advanced 1.1 percent. The output of construction supplies was up 0.4 percent after an increase of 4.4 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter. The production of business supplies increased 0.8 percent in April and now shows a slight gain for the first quarter. Both construction and business supplies were initially reported to have fallen in the first quarter.

The production of industrial materials advanced 1.0 percent in April. The index for energy materials was up 1.3 percent, and the index for non-energy materials rose 0.8 percent. In the durable materials component, the output of consumer parts was up 0.7 percent, and the production of equipment parts moved up 1.6 percent to a level more than 15 percent above its year-ago level. After no change in March, the index for other durable materials increased 0.5 percent in April. Within the nondurable materials category, the indexes for textiles, paper, and chemicals all posted gains.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing production increased 0.7 percent in April. Within the durable goods category, which increased 0.9 percent, gains greater than 1.0 percent were recorded in the production of nonmetallic mineral products; primary metals; machinery; computer and electronic products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment. The output of nondurable goods industries rose 0.4 percent. The production of petroleum and coal products fell 2.3 percent, but output moved higher for all other major nondurable goods components. The indexes for paper and for plastics and rubber products both increased 0.8 percent, and the index for printing and support was up 1.0 percent. The output of chemical industries advanced 0.6 percent, but it remained a bit below its level of a year ago. Production in the non-NAICS manufacturing industries (logging and publishing) advanced 1.4 percent after having increased 1.1 percent in March.

The output of mines advanced 0.9 percent in April. The index for oil and gas extraction rose 1.0 percent; it remained about 5 percent below the level of a year ago, in part because of lingering effects of last year�s hurricanes. In contrast, the output of coal mines jumped 4.7 percent in April and was 12 percent above its year-ago level. Utility output was also up 0.9 percent in April. The output of electric utilities moved higher, but the output of natural gas utilities fell 2.5 percent.

By stage of processing, capacity utilization for industries in the crude stage of processing rose to 87.4 percent, 1.0 percentage point above its long-run (1972-2005) average. For industries in the primary and semifinished stages of processing, the utilization rate moved up, to 82.9 percent, a level 0.8 percentage point above its long-run average. For producers in the finished stage, the utilization rate advanced to 79.7 percent, a rate 1.8 percentage points above its long-run average.

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:

Ascii	Screen reader	Summary: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
Chart		Chart 1: Industrial Production, Capacity, and Capacity Utilization
Chart		Chart 2: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
Chart		Chart 3: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization, High Technology Industries
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 1: Industrial Production: Market and Industry Groups (percent change)
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 2: Industrial Production: Special Aggregates and Selected Detail (percent change)
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 3: Motor Vehicle Assemblies
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 4: Industrial Production Indexes: Market and Industry Group Summary
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 5: Industrial Production Indexes: Special Aggregates
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 6: Diffusion Indexes of Industrial Production
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 7: Capacity Utilization: Manufacturing, Mining, and Utilities
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 8: Industrial Capacity: Manufacturing, Mining, and Utilities (percent change)
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 9: Industrial Production: Gross Value of Products and Nonindustrial Supplies
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 10: Gross-Value-Weighted Industrial Production: Stage-of-Process Groups
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 11: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Total Industry
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 12: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Manufacturing
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 13: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Total Industry excluding Selected High-Technology Industries
Ascii	Screen reader	Table 14: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Manufacturing excluding Selected High-Technology Industries

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