April 2011 Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and New Orders

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Shipments, inventories and new orders put in mixed performances at the total manufacturing and individual industry levels during April according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
 

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Shipments decreased $0.9 billion (0.2 percent) to $444.5 billion in April, breaking a trend of seven consecutive monthly increases. Durable goods shipments decreased $2.5 billion (1.3 percent) to $194.4 billion, led by transportation equipment. Shipments of nondurable goods partially offset the durable-goods decline by increasing $1.6 billion (0.6 percent) to $250.1 billion. Food products led the nondurable increase. Wood and Paper shipments both fell, by 0.1 and 0.6 percent, respectively.
 

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Data from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index (PCI) help round out the picture on goods shipments. AAR reported a substantial 21.2 percent drop in not-seasonally adjusted rail shipments in April. Seasonal adjustments turned that decline into an increase of 1.2 percent. The PCI (which measures diesel consumption of highway trucking) fell by a seasonally and workday adjusted 0.5 percent relative to March.
 

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Inventories increased $7.7 billion (1.3 percent) to $587.8 billion. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.32, up from 1.30 in March. Durable goods inventories increased $3.3 billion (0.9 percent) to $350.6 billion, the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis. Transportation equipment had the largest increase among the durable goods category.

Inventories of nondurable goods increased $4.4 billion (1.9 percent) to $237.2 billion, led by petroleum and coal products. Wood and Paper inventories were mixed; Wood inventories rose by 0.4 percent while Paper shrank by 0.2 percent.
 

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New orders for manufactured goods in April, down two of the last three months, decreased $5.5 billion (1.2 percent) to $440.4 billion. This followed a 3.8 percent March increase. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.2 percent.

Durable goods orders decreased $7.1 billion (3.6 percent) to $190.3 billion, on the heels of a 4.6 percent March increase; transportation equipment had the largest decrease, $4.8 billion (9.3 percent) to $46.9 billion. New orders for nondurable goods increased $1.6 billion (0.6 percent) to $250.1 billion.