October 2010 Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization and Capacity

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Industrial production was unchanged in October after having fallen 0.2 percent in September. Manufacturing output gained 0.5 percent in October. Factory production in September was initially reported to have decreased 0.2 percent, but incoming data on steel, fabricated metal products, machinery, and chemicals resulted in a revision to +0.1 percent. At 93.4 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in October was 5.3 percent above its year-earlier level.

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Industrial production among forest products manufacturers increased in October; Wood Products gained 2.5 percent while Paper rose by 0.6 percent.
 

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October’s all-industry capacity utilization rate was flat at 74.8 percent, a rate 6.6 percentage points (9.7 percent) above the low in June 2009 and 5.8 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2009. Forest products manufacturing capacity utilization rose for both sectors: 3.1 percent for Wood Products and 0.8 percent for Paper.
 

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Capacity at the all-industries level was flat in October, but fell in both Wood Products and Paper sectors.