Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

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Release Date: March 15, 2024
Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Notice Below

Industrial production edged up 0.1 percent in February after declining 0.5 percent in January. In February, the output of manufacturing rose 0.8 percent and the index for mining climbed 2.2 percent. Both gains partly reflected recoveries from weather-related declines in January. The index for utilities fell 7.5 percent in February because of warmer-than-typical temperatures. At 102.3 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in February was 0.2 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector remained at 78.3 percent in February, a rate that is 1.3 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2023) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2017=100 Percent change
2023 2024 2023 2024 Feb. '23 to
Feb. '24
Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[r] Dec.[r] Jan.[r] Feb.[p] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[r] Dec.[r] Jan.[r] Feb.[p]
       
Total index 103.3 102.6 103.0 102.7 102.2 102.3 .2 -.7 .4 -.3 -.5 .1 -.2
Previous estimates 103.2 102.4 102.7 102.7 102.6   .1 -.8 .3 .0 -.1    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 101.4 100.9 101.8 101.3 101.1 100.5 -.3 -.6 .9 -.5 -.1 -.6 -.7
Consumer goods 102.2 101.5 102.4 101.8 102.1 100.7 -.1 -.7 .9 -.6 .3 -1.4 -1.5
Business equipment 95.9 95.3 96.3 96.0 94.7 96.3 -.9 -.6 1.1 -.4 -1.3 1.7 -.2
Nonindustrial supplies 100.5 100.5 100.3 99.9 98.9 99.7 .2 .0 -.2 -.4 -.9 .8 -1.2
Construction 101.4 101.2 101.0 100.7 98.7 100.6 .9 -.3 -.1 -.3 -2.0 1.9 -2.2
Materials 105.9 104.8 105.0 105.0 104.4 104.9 .6 -1.1 .3 -.1 -.6 .5 .6
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 99.5 98.9 99.4 99.5 98.4 99.2 .2 -.7 .6 .0 -1.1 .8 -.7
Previous estimates 99.5 98.7 99.1 99.1 98.6   .1 -.8 .4 .1 -.5    
Mining 120.3 119.4 119.1 120.1 116.6 119.2 .8 -.7 -.3 .8 -2.9 2.2 1.4
Utilities 107.0 105.9 106.2 102.0 109.5 101.3 -.6 -1.1 .3 -4.0 7.4 -7.5 .8

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2023 		1988-
89
high 		1990-
91
low 		1994-
95
high 		 
2009
low 		 
2023
Feb. 		   
2023 2024 Feb. '23 to
Feb. '24
Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[r] Dec.[r] Jan.[r] Feb.[p]
       
Total industry 79.6 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.6 79.5 79.4 78.8 79.0 78.7 78.3 78.3 1.4
Previous estimates             79.4 78.6 78.8 78.7 78.5    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.2 85.6 77.3 84.6 63.4 78.5 77.7 77.1 77.4 77.4 76.4 77.0 1.4
Previous estimates             77.6 76.9 77.1 77.1 76.6    
Mining 86.5 86.3 84.3 88.6 78.9 91.9 94.4 93.8 93.6 94.5 91.7 93.8 -.6
Utilities 84.4 93.2 84.7 93.2 78.1 69.6 72.7 71.7 71.7 68.7 73.5 67.8 3.5
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 85.7 87.9 84.8 90.0 76.9 90.1 92.1 91.2 91.2 92.2 90.1 91.6 -.5
Primary and semifinished 80.2 86.5 78.0 87.8 63.6 76.8 77.3 76.6 76.8 76.0 76.3 75.3 1.4
Finished 76.7 83.4 77.5 80.7 66.3 77.3 75.9 75.4 75.8 75.6 74.8 75.5 2.2
[r] Revised. [p] Preliminary.

Market Groups

The output of most major market groups moved up in February. An exception is the index for consumer goods, which declined 1.4 percent, driven almost entirely by a utilities-related decrease of 8.6 percent in the index for consumer energy. Elsewhere in consumer goods, the indexes for non-energy nondurables and durables rose 0.6 and 0.9 percent, respectively. Similarly, within materials, all market groups posted gains except energy materials, the output of which fell 0.2 percent. All other market groups also recorded increases, led by construction supplies and business equipment, the output of which increased 1.9 and 1.7 percent, respectively.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output stepped up 0.8 percent in February after declining 1.1 percent in January. In February, durable manufacturing posted a gain of 1 percent, and the index for nondurable output increased 0.7 percent. The output of other manufacturing (publishing and logging) inched down 0.1 percent. Among durables, notable increases were recorded in wood products (2.4 percent), miscellaneous manufacturing (2.3 percent), and motor vehicles and parts (1.8 percent). Nondurables also experienced widespread growth, with the largest increases in the output of chemicals (1.6 percent), printing and support (1.5 percent), and paper (1.1 percent).

Mining output climbed 2.2 percent in February after falling 2.9 percent in January. The output of utilities, however, dropped 7.5 percent in February as the indexes for electric and natural gas utilities decreased 6.5 and 13 percent, respectively.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing increased 0.6 percentage point to 77 percent in February, a rate that is 1.2 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for mining moved up 2.1 percentage points to 93.8 percent, a rate that is 7.3 percentage points above its long-run average. The operating rate for utilities slid 5.7 percentage points to 67.8 percent, well below its long-run average of 84.4 percent.

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.

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Last Update: March 15, 2024