Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release (250 KB PDF) (ASCII)

Industrial production decreased 0.2 percent in November after having advanced 0.7 percent in October. Factory output moved down 0.4 percent in November; excluding a drop of 3.4 percent in the output of motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing production declined 0.2 percent. Mining production edged up 0.1 percent, while the output of utilities rose 0.2 percent. At 94.8 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production for November was 3.7 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry decreased to 77.8 percent, a rate 2.0 percentage points above its level from a year earlier but 2.6 percentage points below its long-run (1972--2010) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary

Market Groups

The output of consumer goods declined 0.5 percent in November. The production of durable consumer goods fell 1.4 percent, as the indexes for automotive products and home electronics dropped 2.0 percent or more. The output of appliances, furniture, and carpeting decreased 0.2 percent, while the output of miscellaneous goods increased 0.6 percent. The production of nondurable consumer goods moved down 0.2 percent; an increase of 1.0 percent for consumer energy products was outweighed by a decrease of 0.7 percent for other nondurable consumer goods. The decline in non-energy nondurables reflected reduced output for each of its major categories.

In November, the index for business equipment edged down 0.1 percent; during the previous four months, the index had advanced, on average, more than 1.0 percent per month. The output of transit equipment was unchanged in November, as gains in the output of civilian aircraft and railroad equipment offset declines in the production of motor vehicles for businesses. Overall, the index for transit equipment remained more than 25 percent above its year-earlier level. The index for information processing equipment inched up 0.1 percent in November, and the production of industrial and other equipment decreased 0.3 percent.

The production of defense and space equipment climbed 1.4 percent in November after a similarly sized gain in October.

The output of construction supplies rose 0.4 percent in November, its third consecutive monthly increase. The index for business supplies fell 1.1 percent, with lower production in both its energy and non-energy components.

The index for materials to be further processed in the industrial sector was unchanged in November. The output of durable materials gained 0.4 percent for a second straight month and was up 5.9 percent from a year earlier. In November, among the major categories of durable materials, consumer parts moved down 0.2 percent, equipment parts were unchanged, and other durable materials advanced 0.7 percent. The production of nondurable materials decreased 0.5 percent; a gain in paper materials was outweighed by losses in both textile and chemical materials. The output of energy materials was unchanged.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output decreased 0.4 percent in November, and the factory operating rate dipped to 75.3 percent, a rate 10.9 percentage points above its trough in June 2009 but still 3.7 percentage points below its long-run average.

The output of durable goods slipped 0.1 percent in November but was 7.1 percent above the level from 12 months ago. Decreases of more than 1.5 percent in November occurred for wood products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and motor vehicles and parts. Gains of more than 1.5 percent were recorded for primary metals and for aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment.

The index for nondurable manufacturing declined 0.4 percent in November. Among the major components of nondurables, losses of more than 0.5 percent were reported for textile and product mills, apparel and leather, printing, and chemicals. Only the indexes for paper and for petroleum and coal products moved up.

The index for other manufacturing (non-NAICS), which consists of publishing and logging, dropped 2.2 percent in November; the index had registered gains in each of the previous four months.

The output of mines edged up 0.1 percent in November, after having climbed more than 2.0 percent in October. Capacity utilization in mining was unchanged at 92.9 percent in November, a rate 5.5 percentage points above its long-run average. The output of utilities gained 0.2 percent, and the operating rate for the sector moved up to 78.2 percent, a rate 8.4 percentage points below its long-run average.

Capacity utilization rates in November at industries by stage of process were as follows: At the crude stage, utilization decreased 0.4 percentage point to 90.5 percent, a rate 4.1 percentage points above its long-run average; at the primary and semifinished stages, utilization was unchanged at 74.2 percent, a rate 7.1 percentage points below its long-run average; and at the finished stage, utilization moved down 0.4 percentage point to 76.7 percent, a rate 0.6 percentage point 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 late March 2012. The revised IP indexes will incorporate detailed data from the 2010 Annual Survey of Manufactures, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Annual data from the U.S. Geological Survey regarding metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels) for 2010 will also be incorporated. The update 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 2011 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. Further information on the revision can be obtained from the Board's Industrial Output Section (telephone number 202-452-3197).

Return to top