Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

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Release Date: May 16, 2024
Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Notice Below

Industrial production was little changed in April. Manufacturing output decreased 0.3 percent; excluding motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing output edged down 0.1 percent. The index for mining fell 0.6 percent, and the index for utilities rose 2.8 percent. At 102.8 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in April was 0.4 percentage point lower than its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization moved down to 78.4 percent in April, a rate that is 1.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2023) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2017=100 Percent change
2023 2024 2023 2024 Apr. '23 to
Apr. '24
Nov.[r] Dec.[r] Jan.[r] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[p] Nov.[r] Dec.[r] Jan.[r] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[p]
       
Total index 102.9 102.6 101.8 102.6 102.8 102.8 .3 -.3 -.8 .8 .1 .0 -.4
Previous estimates 102.9 102.6 101.8 102.3 102.7   .4 -.3 -.8 .4 .4    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 101.7 101.2 100.6 101.0 101.4 101.4 .8 -.5 -.6 .4 .4 .0 -1.0
Consumer goods 102.4 101.9 101.5 101.5 102.0 102.1 .8 -.5 -.4 .0 .5 .1 -1.5
Business equipment 96.2 95.7 94.4 96.0 95.9 95.4 1.0 -.6 -1.3 1.7 -.2 -.5 -1.3
Nonindustrial supplies 100.1 99.8 99.3 100.8 101.0 100.8 -.3 -.3 -.6 1.5 .2 -.2 .5
Construction 101.0 100.7 99.4 102.1 102.0 101.1 -.1 -.3 -1.3 2.8 -.1 -1.0 -.8
Materials 104.9 104.7 103.7 104.7 104.6 104.7 .1 -.2 -1.0 1.0 -.1 .1 -.1
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 99.3 99.3 98.2 99.5 99.7 99.4 .5 .0 -1.2 1.4 .2 -.3 -.5
Previous estimates 99.4 99.4 98.2 99.4 99.9   .5 .0 -1.1 1.2 .5    
Mining 119.0 120.0 114.4 119.2 117.9 117.1 -.4 .8 -4.6 4.2 -1.1 -.6 -1.3
Utilities 106.2 102.0 109.7 102.1 103.7 106.7 .3 -4.0 7.6 -6.9 1.6 2.8 2.3

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2023 		1988-
89
high 		1990-
91
low 		1994-
95
high 		 
2009
low 		 
2023
Apr. 		   
2023 2024 Apr. '23 to
Apr. '24
Nov.[r] Dec.[r] Jan.[r] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[p]
       
Total industry 79.6 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.6 79.8 79.0 78.6 77.9 78.5 78.5 78.4 1.4
Previous estimates             79.0 78.7 77.9 78.2 78.4    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.2 85.6 77.3 84.6 63.4 78.4 77.3 77.3 76.2 77.2 77.2 76.9 1.4
Previous estimates             77.4 77.3 76.3 77.1 77.4    
Mining 86.5 86.3 84.3 88.6 78.9 92.8 93.5 94.4 90.0 93.8 92.7 92.1 -.6
Utilities 84.4 93.2 84.7 93.2 78.1 71.8 71.7 68.7 73.7 68.4 69.2 71.0 3.5
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 85.7 87.9 84.8 90.0 76.9 90.3 91.0 92.0 88.7 91.5 90.9 90.2 -.5
Primary and semifinished 80.2 86.5 78.0 87.8 63.6 77.1 76.8 76.0 76.4 75.8 76.1 76.1 1.5
Finished 76.7 83.4 77.5 80.7 66.3 77.6 75.8 75.5 74.5 75.4 75.2 75.3 2.2
[r] Revised. [p] Preliminary.

Market Groups

The major market groups posted mixed results in April. The index for durable consumer goods fell 1.5 percent, weighed down by a 1.8 percent decline in the output of automotive products. The index for construction supplies dropped 1.0 percent, and the index for business equipment decreased 0.5 percent. By contrast, the index for nondurable consumer goods rose 0.5 percent in April, as a 0.9 percent gain in the non-energy component outweighed a 0.2 percent decrease in the energy component. The output of defense and space equipment rose 0.8 percent, and the output of business supplies increased 0.2 percent.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output decreased 0.3 percent in April and was 0.5 percentage point below its year-earlier level. The index for durable manufacturing declined 0.5 percent in April, while the index for nondurable manufacturing edged down 0.1 percent, and the index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) rose 0.3 percent.

Most industry groups within durable manufacturing posted declines in April. The largest declines were in the indexes for motor vehicles and parts, for electrical equipment, appliances, and components, and for wood products, which fell 2.0 percent, 1.9 percent, and 1.6 percent, respectively. Primary metals (1.0 percent), computer and electronic products (0.6 percent), and aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment (0.9 percent) were the only groups that posted increases. Within nondurables, the output of petroleum and coal products dropped 4.4 percent; the other nondurable categories posted gains.

Mining output decreased 0.6 percent in April, largely because of an 18.1 percent decline in the index for coal mining. The output of utilities increased 2.8 percent.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing moved down 0.3 percentage point in April to 76.9 percent, a rate that is 1.3 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for mining fell 0.6 percentage point to 92.1 percent, while the operating rate for utilities increased 1.8 percentage points to 71.0 percent. The rate for mining was 5.6 percentage points above its long-run average, while the rate for utilities remained substantially below its long-run average.

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board plans to issue its annual revision to the indexes of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization on June 28, 2024. Detailed results of the Economic Census for 2022 will not be published until 2025, so no new annual benchmark data will be included for manufacturing. Other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels), will be incorporated. 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 for manufacturing through the fourth quarter of 2023 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.

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Last Update: May 16, 2024