U.S. Industrial Production edged up 0.2% in July, slowing from a revised 0.3% gain in June and missing market expectations for a 0.4% increase.
On an annual basis, production increased 1.1%, with the total index reaching 103.0% of its 2017 average.
The Federal Reserve’s latest Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report, issued Aug. 18, showed that manufacturing output increased 0.2% during July after a revised 0.3% gain in June, and was up 1.2% year-over-year. Manufacturing production excluding motor vehicles and parts increased 0.4%.
The July indexes for mining increased 0.2% MoM (+0.3% in June) and utilities output improved 0.5% (+0.1% in June).
Meanwhile, U.S. industrial capacity utilization edged up 0.1 percentage point to 76.3%, with June’s rate revised upward to 76.2%. The July utilization rate was 3.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2025) average.
U.S. Industrial Production: Month-Over-Month
U.S. Industrial Production: Year-Over-Year
Market Groups
The major market groups posted mixed results in July. The output of consumer goods declined 0.4%, reflecting decreases of 1.4% in durable consumer goods and 0.1% in nondurable consumer goods. The output of business equipment increased 0.8%, as gains in information processing equipment and industrial and other equipment more than offset a decline in transit equipment.
The output of defense and space equipment jumped 1.8%, while production of construction supplies increased 0.8%. The index for business supplies was unchanged, while the index for materials gained 0.3%.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output increased 0.2% in July, with a 0.7% gain in durable manufacturing partially offset by a 0.4% decline in nondurable manufacturing. Most durable-goods categories expanded by more than 1%, while nonmetallic mineral products decreased 0.2% and motor vehicles and parts fell 2.1%.
Within nondurable manufacturing, gains in textile and product mills and petroleum and coal products were more than offset by declines across the other major categories.
Mining output rose 0.2% in July. The index for utilities increased 0.5%, with electric and natural gas utilities posting similarly sized gains.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing edged up 0.1 percentage point to 76.0% in July, which is 2.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972-2025) average. The operating rate for mining ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 86.1%, while the operating rate for utilities increased 0.2 percentage point to 70.0%. Mining’s utilization rate was 0.9 percentage point above its long-run average, while the utilities rate remained substantially below its long-run average.
