INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION
[Annual Revision Notice Below]

Industrial production increased 0.6 percent in December. The gain primarily resulted from an increase of 5.9 percent in electric and gas utilities due to unseasonably cold weather. Manufacturing production edged down 0.1 percent, while the output of mines rose 0.2 percent. The change in the overall index was revised up in October, but it was revised down in November; for the fourth quarter as a whole, total industrial production increased at an annual rate of 7.0 percent. At 100.3 percent of its 2002 average, output in December was 2.0 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry edged up to 72.0 percent in December, a rate 8.9 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION: SUMMARY
Seasonally adjusted

Industrial production	2002=100						Percent change
	2009						2009						Dec. '08 to Dec. '09
	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	96.9	98.3	98.9	99.1	99.7	100.3	1.2	1.3	.6	.2	.6	.6	-2.0
Previous estimates	96.8	98.1	98.6	98.6	99.4		1.1	1.3	.6	.0	.8
Major market groups
Final Products	100.1	101.5	102.3	102.8	102.7	103.4	1.1	1.4	.8	.5	-.1	.7	-2.6
Consumer goods	97.3	98.7	99.7	100.3	100.3	100.9	1.0	1.5	1.0	.6	.0	.6	.3
Business equipment	107.3	108.8	108.4	109.0	108.2	109.2	1.5	1.4	-.4	.5	-.7	.9	-9.6
Nonindustrial supplies	90.7	91.1	90.9	90.7	91.5	91.6	.2	.4	-.2	-.2	.9	.1	-5.1
Construction	82.5	82.8	81.8	80.5	81.7	80.1	.5	.5	-1.2	-1.6	1.5	-2.0	-10.1
Materials	96.4	97.9	98.7	98.8	100.0	100.8	1.8	1.6	.8	.0	1.3	.8	-.1
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below)	95.9	97.3	98.0	97.8	98.7	98.7	1.6	1.4	.7	-.1	.9	-.1	-1.9
Previous estimates	95.8	97.1	97.7	97.5	98.6		1.4	1.4	.7	-.2	1.1
Mining	95.1	97.0	96.8	96.8	98.6	98.8	1.5	2.0	-.2	.0	1.9	.2	-4.5
Utilities	102.8	103.4	104.1	106.8	104.2	110.4	-1.0	.6	.6	2.6	-2.4	5.9	-.8

Market Groups

The production of consumer goods moved up 0.6 percent in December, as a large increase in residential sales by utilities boosted the index for consumer energy goods. Elsewhere, the output of consumer durables fell 0.9 percent, and the output of consumer non-energy nondurables was unchanged. Among durables, decreases in the indexes for automotive products and for appliances, furniture, and carpeting more than offset an increase in the index for home electronics. Among non-energy nondurables, the output of chemical products rose 0.9 percent, but the output of paper products fell 1.7 percent; production for other major categories decreased slightly. For the fourth quarter as a whole, the overall index for consumer goods increased at an annual rate of 8.0 percent.

The index for business equipment rose 0.9 percent in December, with gains for all of its major components. Both transit equipment and information processing equipment increased more than 1.0 percent. The advance in information processing equipment included a sizable gain in the production of communications equipment. For the fourth quarter as a whole, the index for business equipment increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent.

The production of defense and space equipment fell 0.3 percent in December, for its third consecutive monthly decline. Nevertheless, the index was 2.3 percent above its year-earlier level.

Among nonindustrial supplies, the production of construction supplies decreased 2.0 percent in December and more than reversed its gain a month earlier. For the fourth quarter as a whole, construction supplies fell at an annual rate of 7.6 percent after having risen 1.6 percent in the third quarter. The output of business supplies moved up 1.1 percent in December; an increase in commercial energy products more than offset a decline in general business supplies. The index for business supplies has increased for seven consecutive months; for the fourth quarter as a whole, it advanced at an annual rate of 5.8 percent.

The production of materials moved up 0.8 percent in December, its sixth consecutive monthly gain. The index advanced at an annual rate of 9.3 percent in the fourth quarter, after having gained 10.1 percent in the third quarter. In December, the production of energy materials increased 1.8 percent, primarily because of a jump in the output of electric and gas utilities. Non-energy materials increased 0.4 percent. Among non-energy materials, the index for durables increased 0.7 percent, while the index for nondurables was unchanged. All major components of durable materials increased. Among nondurable materials, an increase of 1.5 percent in the output of chemical materials was offset by decreases in textile, paper, and other nondurable materials.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output edged down 0.1 percent in December after a gain of 0.9 percent in November. Capacity utilization for manufacturing was 68.6 percent, a rate 11.0 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008. For the fourth quarter as a whole, manufacturing output increased at an annual rate of 5.7 percent.

The production of durable goods increased 0.1 percent in December. The indexes for machinery and for computer and electronic products registered robust gains, but large declines were recorded in nonmetallic mineral products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and miscellaneous manufacturing. Most other major categories of durables advanced moderately.

The production of nondurable goods edged down 0.1 percent in December. The output of paper declined 2.0 percent, and production of petroleum and coal products fell 3.2 percent, while production of chemical products increased 1.3 percent; results for the other components were mixed. The index for non-NAICS manufacturing industries (logging and publishing) declined 1.7 percent in December.

For mining, output increased 0.2 percent in December, and capacity utilization edged up to 85.7 percent, a rate 1.9 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008. For the fourth quarter as a whole, the index for mining rose at an annual rate of 7.5 percent. The output of utilities jumped 5.9 percent in December, and the operating rate for utilities rose 4.5 percentage points to 82.9 percent. The output of natural gas utilities increased 12.2 percent, and the output of electric utilities rose 4.7 percent.

Capacity utilization rates at industries grouped by stage of process changed in December as follows: For the crude stage, utilization rose 0.5 percentage point to 86.1 percent, a rate 0.5 percentage point below its 1972-2008 average; for the primary and semifinished stages, utilization rose 0.7 percentage point to 68.9 percent, a rate 13.1 percentage points below its long-run average; and for the finished stage, utilization increased 0.3 percentage point to 70.2 percent, a rate 7.5 percentage points below its long-run average.

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board plans to issue its annual revision to the index of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization in the second quarter of 2010. The revised IP indexes will incorporate detailed data from the 2007 Economic Census and the 2008 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), both conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data from selected editions of the Census Bureau's 2008 Current Industrial Reports will also be incorporated, as will annual data from the U.S. Geological Survey regarding metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels) for 2008. The updating will include revisions to the monthly indicator (either product data or input data) and to seasonal factors for each industry as well as changes in the estimation methods for some series. Any changes 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 from the Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity, which covers manufacturing, along with new data on capacity from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Energy, and other organizations.

Once the revision is published, it will be available on the Board's website at www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17. The revised data will also be available through the website of the Department of Commerce. Further information on the revision can be obtained from the Board's Industrial Output Section (telephone number 202-452-3197).

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