Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release (273 KB PDF) (ASCII)

Release Date: March 17, 2017

Industrial production was unchanged in February following a 0.1 percent decrease in January. In February, manufacturing output moved up 0.5 percent for its sixth consecutive monthly increase. Mining output jumped 2.7 percent, but the index for utilities fell 5.7 percent, as continued unseasonably warm weather further reduced demand for heating. At 104.7 percent of its 2012 average, total industrial production in February was 0.3 percent above its level of a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector declined 0.1 percentage point in February to 75.4 percent, a rate that is 4.5 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2016) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary

Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2012=100 Percent change
2016 2017 2016 2017 Feb. '16 to
Feb. '17
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 104.1 104.4 104.1 104.8 104.7 104.7 -.3 .3 -.3 .6 -.1 .0 .3
Previous estimates 104.1 104.4 104.2 104.8 104.6   -.3 .3 -.2 .6 -.3    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 100.8 100.9 100.2 101.3 101.3 101.2 -.3 .0 -.7 1.1 .0 .0 .6
Consumer goods 103.9 103.8 102.8 104.0 103.9 103.5 -.3 -.1 -1.0 1.2 -.1 -.4 .0
Business equipment 101.9 102.2 101.8 102.7 102.6 103.4 -.3 .3 -.4 .9 -.1 .7 1.5
Nonindustrial supplies 105.4 105.5 105.8 106.0 106.1 106.4 .3 .1 .3 .2 .1 .3 -.2
Construction 108.6 109.5 110.4 110.1 111.7 113.1 .5 .8 .9 -.3 1.4 1.3 1.7
Materials 106.2 106.8 106.8 107.2 107.0 107.0 -.6 .6 .0 .3 -.1 -.1 .2
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 102.9 103.2 103.3 103.5 104.0 104.5 .1 .3 .1 .2 .5 .5 1.2
Previous estimates 103.0 103.3 103.3 103.5 103.8   .1 .3 .0 .2 .2    
Mining 102.9 107.1 106.8 105.4 107.7 110.6 -.5 4.1 -.2 -1.4 2.2 2.7 1.8
Utilities 105.1 102.3 99.7 105.1 99.0 93.4 -2.8 -2.7 -2.5 5.4 -5.8 -5.7 -7.0

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2016
1988-
89
high
1990-
91
low
1994-
95
high
 
2009
low
 
2016
Feb.
   
2016 2017 Feb. '16 to
Feb. '17
Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[r] Dec.[r] Jan.[r] Feb.[p]
       
Total industry 79.9 85.3 78.8 85.0 66.7 75.6 75.3 75.4 75.2 75.6 75.5 75.4 .6
Previous estimates             75.3 75.5 75.2 75.6 75.3    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.4 85.6 77.3 84.6 63.8 75.4 74.8 74.9 74.9 75.0 75.3 75.6 .8
Previous estimates             74.8 75.0 74.9 75.0 75.1    
Mining 87.0 86.2 83.8 88.6 79.0 76.8 74.5 77.7 77.7 76.8 78.4 80.5 -2.9
Utilities 85.6 93.2 84.7 93.2 78.2 76.9 80.1 77.9 75.9 80.0 75.3 70.9 .8
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 86.1 87.6 84.5 90.1 77.0 76.5 75.6 77.7 78.2 77.6 78.8 79.6 -2.0
Primary and semifinished 80.5 86.5 78.1 87.8 63.8 75.8 75.5 75.2 74.8 75.7 74.9 74.3 1.1
Finished 76.9 83.4 77.3 80.6 66.6 75.2 74.9 75.0 74.7 75.1 75.2 75.5 .7
r Revised. p Preliminary.
Market Groups

Most of the major non-energy market groups recorded increases in February. For a second consecutive month, however, a drop in the output of utilities contributed substantially to losses in the overall indexes for consumer goods, business supplies, and materials through their energy components. The production of consumer goods moved down 0.4 percent overall, reflecting a drop in consumer energy products. The index for consumer durables was unchanged, as a loss of 3.6 percent in appliances, furniture, and carpeting was outweighed by increases in other groups. The production of consumer non-energy nondurables rose 0.3 percent because of improvements in foods and tobacco and in clothing. The output of business equipment moved up 0.7 percent, with both information processing equipment and industrial and other equipment recording increases. The output of construction supplies jumped 1.3 percent; the index has advanced more than 4 percent over the past six months. The indexes for non-energy business supplies and non-energy materials each rose more than 1/2 percent. Within materials, both durable and nondurable materials posted gains.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output rose 0.5 percent in February for a second consecutive month. Led by advances of more than 1 percent for nonmetallic mineral products, fabricated metal products, and machinery, the production of durables increased 0.6 percent. The electrical equipment, appliance, and component industry and the furniture and related products industry registered the only substantial losses within durables, about 1.5 percent each. The index for nondurables rose 0.4 percent; gains of more than 1 percent were recorded by paper and by plastics and rubber products, while the only losses were posted by textile and product mills and by chemicals. The output of other manufacturing (publishing and logging) fell 0.5 percent.

The output of mining jumped 2.7 percent in February, with widespread gains among its components, after moving up 2.2 percent in January. The mining index in February was 1.8 percent higher than its year-earlier level.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing rose 0.3 percentage point in February to 75.6 percent, a rate that is 2.8 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for durables, at 76.7 percent, is 0.2 percentage point below its long-run average; the rates for nondurables and for other manufacturing (publishing and logging), at 75.4 percent and 60.5 percent, respectively, remain significantly below their long-run averages. Utilization for mining jumped 2.1 percentage points to 80.5 percent but is still well below its long-run average. The operating rate for utilities fell 4.4 percentage points to 70.9 percent, its lowest recorded level.

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 at 12:00 noon (EDT) on March 31, 2017. New annual benchmark data for 2015 for manufacturing will be incorporated, as will other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels). 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 through the fourth quarter of 2016 from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity 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 and Capacity Utilization, High Technology 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

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Last update: March 17, 2017