April 2012 Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization and Capacity

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Industrial production increased 1.1 percent in April. Output is now reported to have fallen 0.6 percent in March and to have moved up 0.4 percent in February; previously, industrial production was estimated to have been unchanged in both months. Manufacturing output increased 0.6 percent in April after having decreased 0.5 percent in March. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, which increased nearly 4 percent, manufacturing output moved up 0.3 percent, and output for all but a few major industries increased. At 97.4 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production for April was 5.2 percent above its year-earlier level. Wood Products output retreated by 1.4 percent, while Paper advanced by 0.7 percent.
 

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Capacity utilization for total industry moved up to 79.2 percent, a rate 3.1 percentage points (or 4.1 percent) above its level from a year earlier but 1.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972--2011) average. As with industrial production, capacity utilization was split: -1.2 percent for Wood Products, and +0.7 percent for Paper.
 

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Capacity at the all-industries and manufacturing levels crept higher (0.1 percent). By contrast, Wood Products and Paper both dropped: respectively, by 0.2 and 0.1 percent.