Both of these data series can be broken down into two periods. The first is a sharp and strong rebound from the contraction. That lasted until about the beginning of this year, when we still saw increases, but the pace of the increase slowed. This jibes with our overall experience in the economy as a whole. We're still seeing growth, but at an agonizingly slow pace.
The utilization numbers indicate there is still a fair amount of slack in the system, allowing producers to absorb any commodity price spikes at the gross input level.
