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November 2022 Industrial Production decreased 0.2%, Capacity Utilization decreased to 79.7%
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Industrial production declined 0.2 percent in November. Decreases of 0.6 percent for manufacturing and 0.7 percent for mining were partly offset by a rebound of 3.6 percent for utilities following three months of declines. At 104.5 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in November was 2.5 percent above its year-earlier reading. Capacity utilization moved down 0.2 percentage point in November to 79.7 percent, a rate that is 0.1 percentage point above its long-run (1972–2021) average.
Market Groups
Decreases were broad based across market groups with the primary exceptions of consumer energy products, energy materials, and defense and space equipment. The output of consumer durables fell about 2 percent, led by automotive products, while the output of consumer non-energy nondurables decreased about 1/2 percent. The production of business equipment fell 0.8 percent, reflecting decreases for transit equipment and for industrial and other equipment. The indexes for construction supplies, business supplies, durable materials, and nondurable materials all declined 1/2 percent or less.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output decreased 0.6 percent in November but remained 1.2 percent above its year-earlier level. The indexes for durable and nondurable manufacturing both declined 0.6 percent, and the index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) slipped 0.4 percent. Within durables, increases were recorded by wood products, by computer and electronic products, and by aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment; these gains were outweighed by losses for other industries, particularly for motor vehicles and parts. Within nondurables, most industries registered decreases, with only printing and support posting an increase.
Mining output declined 0.7 percent. The indexes for oil and gas extraction and for oil and gas well drilling also each fell 0.7 percent; the decrease for drilling followed more than two years of nearly uninterrupted increases. The output of utilities strengthened 3.6 percent in November, as a decrease for natural gas utilities partly offset an increase for electric utilities.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing fell 0.6 percentage point in November to 78.9 percent, a rate that is 0.7 percentage point above its long-run average. The operating rate for mining fell 0.7 percentage point to 88.2 percent, while the operating rate for utilities increased 2.4 percentage points to 74.4 percent. Capacity utilization for mining was 1.9 percentage points above its long-run average, but the rate for utilities remained substantially below its long-run average of 84.7 percent.
Posted: December 15, 2022 Thursday 09:15 AM