Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release (250 KB PDF) (ASCII)

Release Date: August 15, 2013

Industrial production was unchanged in July after having gained 0.2 percent in June. In July, manufacturing production declined 0.1 percent. The output of mines advanced 2.1 percent, its fourth consecutive monthly increase, and the production of utilities fell 2.1 percent, its fourth consecutive monthly decrease. At 98.9 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in July was 1.4 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry edged down 0.1 percentage point to 77.6 percent in July, a rate 0.3 percentage point below its level of a year earlier and 2.6 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2012) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary

Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2007=100 Percent change
2013 2013 July '12 to
July '13
Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[p] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[p]
       
Total index 98.8 99.0 98.7 98.7 98.9 98.9 .7 .2 -.4 .0 .2 .0 1.4
Previous estimates 98.9 99.1 98.8 98.7 99.1   .7 .2 -.3 .0 .3    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 96.7 97.2 96.7 96.6 97.1 96.8 1.0 .5 -.5 -.2 .5 -.3 1.3
Consumer goods 94.1 94.8 94.2 94.0 94.6 94.1 .8 .8 -.6 -.2 .6 -.5 1.3
Business equipment 102.3 102.3 102.2 102.0 102.5 102.5 1.9 .0 -.2 -.1 .4 .0 2.1
Nonindustrial supplies 88.3 88.2 87.6 87.6 87.6 87.3 .8 .0 -.7 -.1 .0 -.3 .9
Construction 82.8 81.8 80.8 80.3 80.8 81.2 2.3 -1.2 -1.3 -.6 .5 .5 4.4
Materials 104.5 104.5 104.3 104.6 104.6 105.0 .3 .0 -.2 .3 .0 .4 1.7
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 95.7 95.5 95.1 95.3 95.5 95.4 .6 -.3 -.4 .3 .2 -.1 1.3
Previous estimates 95.8 95.5 95.2 95.5 95.7   .7 -.3 -.3 .2 .3    
Mining 116.1 115.7 116.6 116.7 117.9 120.3 .9 -.3 .8 .1 1.0 2.1 5.7
Utilities 98.9 103.8 102.1 100.3 99.5 97.5 .9 5.0 -1.6 -1.8 -.8 -2.1 -3.7

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2012
1988-
89
high
1990-
91
low
1994-
95
high
 
2009
low
 
2012
July
   
2013 July '12 to
July '13
Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[p]
       
Total industry 80.2 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.9 77.9 78.1 78.2 77.8 77.7 77.7 77.6 1.8
Previous estimates             78.2 78.2 77.9 77.7 77.8    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.7 85.6 77.3 84.6 64.0 76.0 76.5 76.2 75.8 75.9 75.9 75.8 1.5
Previous estimates             76.6 76.3 75.9 76.0 76.1    
Mining 87.3 86.3 83.9 88.6 78.3 88.2 87.9 87.3 87.6 87.4 88.0 89.5 4.1
Utilities 86.2 92.9 84.3 93.3 78.6 80.0 77.5 81.3 79.9 78.5 77.8 76.2 1.1
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 86.3 87.7 84.4 89.7 76.4 86.4 86.3 86.0 86.1 86.3 86.5 87.4 3.1
Primary and semifinished 81.0 86.5 78.0 87.9 64.4 75.8 76.4 76.8 76.2 76.0 75.7 75.5 .5
Finished 77.1 83.4 77.3 80.6 66.8 76.7 76.5 76.3 75.8 75.8 76.1 75.6 2.9
r Revised. p Preliminary.
Market Groups

The production of consumer goods decreased 0.5 percent in July after having increased 0.6 percent in June; in July, the index stood 1.3 percent above its year-earlier level. The production of durable consumer goods fell 1.5 percent; within consumer durables, automotive products posted a loss of 2.4 percent, while all other indexes moved down between 1/2 and 1 percent. The index for consumer nondurables contracted 0.2 percent. The output of non-energy nondurables decreased 0.4 percent, with losses in the indexes for foods and tobacco, for chemical products, and for paper products. After having fallen in the previous three months, the output of consumer energy products moved up 0.3 percent, as increases in petroleum refining more than offset lower sales of electricity to residences.

The index for business equipment was unchanged in July and stood 2.1 percent above its year-earlier level. In July, the index for transit equipment was unchanged, the production of information processing equipment decreased 0.7 percent, and the index for industrial and other equipment edged up 0.2 percent.

The output of defense and space equipment advanced 1.0 percent in July. The increase in July was the first gain for the index since December 2012. The cumulative decline over the first six months of the year was 2.3 percent.

In July, the output of construction supplies advanced 0.5 percent for a second consecutive month and, despite large swings over the past year, stood 4.4 percent above its level of a year earlier. The production of business supplies declined 0.7 percent in July and was 0.5 percent below its year-earlier level.

The production of materials to be processed further in the industrial sector moved up 0.4 percent in July and stood 1.7 percent above its year-earlier level. The output of durable materials edged up 0.2 percent in July, as a decline for equipment parts was outweighed by increases for consumer parts and for other durable materials. The production of nondurable materials moved down 0.5 percent as a result of losses for textile, paper, and chemical materials. The output of energy materials advanced 1.2 percent on the strength of gains in oil and natural gas extraction; in July, the index for this market group was 3.5 percent above its level of a year earlier.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output declined 0.1 percent in July after having increased 0.3 percent in May and 0.2 percent in June. The index in July was slightly above its level at the end of last year and 1.3 percent above its level in July 2012. The factory operating rate moved down 0.1 percentage point to 75.8 percent, a rate 2.9 percentage points below its long-run average.

The output of durable goods fell 0.2 percent in July; the index has been little changed since February. In July, primary metals posted the largest gain among the major components of durables, 2.6 percent, while motor vehicles and parts recorded the largest loss, 1.7 percent. Capacity utilization for durable goods manufacturing fell 0.3 percentage point to 75.6 percent, a rate 1.4 percentage points below its long-run average.

The index for nondurable manufacturing was unchanged in July for a second month in a row and was 0.9 percent above its level of a year earlier. Among the major components of nondurables, the production of petroleum and coal products advanced 2.0 percent, and the index for apparel and leather goods moved up 0.7 percent. Printing and support recorded the largest decrease in output, 1.2 percent, while the indexes for food, beverage, and tobacco products and for textile and product mills both posted losses of around 1/2 percent. The indexes for other nondurable goods industries were little changed. Capacity utilization for nondurables edged down 0.1 percentage point to 77.3 percent, a rate 3.4 percentage points below its long-run average.

Production for non-NAICS manufacturing industries (publishing and logging) decreased 0.1 percent in July after having increased 0.9 percent in June. The index was 4.5 percent below its year-earlier level.

Mining output moved up 2.1 percent in July following an increase of 1.0 percent in June. The gain in July reflected a large increase in oil and gas extraction. The operating rate for mining rose 1.5 percentage points to 89.5 percent, a rate 2.2 percentage points above its long-run average. The production of electric and gas utilities fell 2.1 percent, and their operating rate declined 1.6 percentage points to 76.2 percent, a rate 10.0 percentage points below its long-run average.

Capacity utilization rates in July for industries grouped by stage of process were as follows: At the crude stage, utilization increased 0.9 percentage point to 87.4 percent, a rate 1.1 percentage points above its long-run average; at the primary and semifinished stages, utilization declined 0.2 percentage point to 75.5 percent, a rate 5.5 percentage points below its long-run average; and at the finished stage, utilization moved down 0.5 percentage point to 75.6 percent, a rate 1.5 percentage points lower than its long-run average.

Rebasing of Gross Value of Products Series

With the October 17, 2013, release of the G.17, the comparison base year for the data in Table 9, Gross Value of Final Products and Nonindustrial Supplies, and in Table 10, Gross-Value-Weighted Industrial Production: Stage-of-Process Groups, will be advanced to 2009 to conform with the comparison base year of the national income and product accounts issued by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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: August 15, 2013