Industrial production rose 0.2 percent in August after a downwardly revised increase of 0.6 percent in July. The downward revision in July primarily resulted from newly available data on the output of four industries within manufacturing: iron and steel, construction machinery, paper, and pharmaceuticals. The index for manufacturing output rose 0.2 percent in August after having advanced 0.7 percent in July; the step-down in the rate of increase reflected a fallback in the production of motor vehicles and parts, which had jumped sharply in July. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing output increased 0.5 percent in August after having gained 0.2 percent in July. Production at mines moved up 1.2 percent in August, while the output of utilities moved down 1.5 percent. At 93.2 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in August was 6.2 percent above its year-earlier level. The capacity utilization rate for total industry rose to 74.7 percent, a rate 4.7 percentage points above the rate from a year earlier and 5.9 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2009.
Let's take a look at the macro charts:
Overall industrial production continues its rebounds, as does
overall capacity utilization
Let's look at the market groups in more detail
Overall consumer goods were down .4% because of a drop in auto production.
The chart above shows the drop in durable consumer goods. However, also note the longer trend up.
Non-durables also increased, but they are at stalling a bit, having been at the same level for the last few months.
Business equipment continues to increase
Materials production continues to increase, but largely because of
Durables materials.
Non-durables materials production has been stagnant for most of the year.
In short, this area of the economy looks to be in decent shape.
