Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release PDF ASCII RSS DDP

Release Date: December 15, 2017
Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Notice Below

Industrial production moved up 0.2 percent in November after posting an upwardly revised increase of 1.2 percent in October. Manufacturing production also rose 0.2 percent in November, its third consecutive monthly gain. The output of utilities dropped 1.9 percent. The index for mining increased 2.0 percent, as oil and gas extraction returned to normal levels after being held down in October by Hurricane Nate. Excluding the post-hurricane rebound in oil and gas extraction, total industrial production would have been unchanged in November. Total industrial production was 106.4 percent of its 2012 average in November and was 3.4 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector was 77.1 percent in November, a rate that is 2.8 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2016) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2012=100 Percent change
2017 2017 Nov. '16 to
Nov. '17
June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[p] June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[p]
Total index 105.3 105.1 104.6 104.9 106.1 106.4 .2 -.1 -.4 .3 1.2 .2 3.4
Previous estimates 105.2 105.2 104.7 105.2 106.1 .2 .0 -.5 .4 .9
Major market groups
Final Products 101.9 101.5 101.6 102.0 103.1 103.0 -.2 -.3 .0 .4 1.1 -.1 3.2
Consumer goods 105.1 105.0 105.1 105.1 106.4 105.9 -.3 -.1 .1 .0 1.2 -.4 2.2
Business equipment 101.9 100.7 100.7 102.2 103.5 104.0 -.2 -1.1 -.1 1.5 1.2 .5 5.2
Nonindustrial supplies 105.2 105.2 104.5 105.3 105.9 105.9 -.3 .0 -.6 .7 .6 .0 1.3
Construction 110.3 110.3 109.4 111.4 111.9 112.6 -.4 .0 -.8 1.9 .5 .6 3.1
Materials 107.7 107.8 106.9 106.9 108.4 109.1 .6 .0 -.8 .0 1.4 .6 4.1
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 103.5 103.2 103.0 103.2 104.7 104.8 .1 -.3 -.2 .2 1.4 .2 2.4
Previous estimates 103.5 103.3 103.1 103.5 104.8 .1 -.2 -.2 .4 1.3
Mining 109.5 109.9 108.6 110.4 109.7 111.9 1.3 .4 -1.2 1.7 -.6 2.0 9.4
Utilities 103.5 104.1 102.8 101.5 103.6 101.6 -.9 .5 -1.2 -1.3 2.0 -1.9 2.3
Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2016 		1988-
89
high 		1990-
91
low 		1994-
95
high
2009
low
2016
Nov.
2017 Nov. '16 to
Nov. '17
June[r] July[r] Aug.[r] Sept.[r] Oct.[r] Nov.[p]
Total industry 79.9 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.7 75.5 76.6 76.5 76.1 76.2 77.0 77.1 1.1
Previous estimates 76.6 76.5 76.1 76.4 77.0
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.4 85.6 77.3 84.6 63.7 75.1 75.6 75.3 75.1 75.2 76.3 76.4 .7
Previous estimates 75.6 75.4 75.2 75.5 76.4
Mining 87.0 86.1 83.8 88.6 78.4 79.3 83.7 83.8 82.6 83.8 83.0 84.5 2.7
Utilities 85.6 93.2 84.7 93.2 78.1 74.5 77.2 77.6 76.6 75.6 77.1 75.7 .7
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 86.1 87.7 84.5 90.1 76.3 80.0 83.4 83.5 81.6 81.3 82.8 83.9 2.7
Primary and semifinished 80.5 86.5 78.1 87.8 63.8 74.8 75.9 75.6 75.2 75.2 76.0 75.9 .5
Finished 76.9 83.4 77.3 80.6 66.7 74.6 75.0 74.9 75.0 75.6 76.1 76.1 .8
r Revised. p Preliminary.
Market Groups

The output of consumer goods decreased 0.4 percent in November, with durables, non-energy nondurables, and consumer energy products all posting declines. The index for business equipment rose 0.5 percent, with increases in all of its major categories. The output of defense and space equipment climbed 0.7 percent to reverse its decrease in October; the index has increased in five of the past six months. In November, the output of construction supplies moved up 0.6 percent, and the output of business supplies fell 0.3 percent. The production of materials rose 0.6 percent; durable materials and energy materials posted gains of 1.0 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, but nondurable materials recorded a loss of 0.2 percent.

Industry Groups

In November, manufacturing output rose 0.2 percent and was 2.4 percent above its year-earlier level. The increase in November reflected a gain of 0.4 percent for durables. The index for nondurable manufacturing was unchanged, and the index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) dropped 1.4 percent. Within durable manufacturing, gains were widespread, with the largest being the advance of 1.7 percent registered by primary metals. Among nondurable manufacturing industries, increases for plastics and rubber products and for printing and support were offset by declines for all of the other major industries.

A gain of 3.0 percent in oil and gas extraction was the primary contributor to a jump of 2.0 percent for mining production in November. The index for mining is up 9.4 percent from its year-earlier level, but it is 8.2 percent below its peak in December 2014. The index for utilities dropped 1.9 percent, as a decrease for electric utilities outweighed an increase for natural gas utilities.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing edged up to 76.4 percent in November, its highest reading since May 2008. Utilization for durables increased 0.2 percentage point to 75.9 percent, and the operating rate for nondurables edged down 0.1 percentage point to 78.0 percent. The operating rate for mines increased 1.5 percentage points to 84.5 percent, and the rate for utilities decreased 1.4 percentage points to 75.7 percent.

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 around the end of the first quarter of 2018. New annual benchmark data for 2016 will be incorporated for manufacturing, 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 2017 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:

Back to Top
Last Update: December 15, 2017