May 2012 Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and New Orders

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the value of manufactured-goods shipments increased $2.3 billion (0.5 percent) to $476.0 billion in May. Shipments of durable goods increased $1.7 billion (0.8 percent) to $224.3 billion, led by transportation equipment.

Shipments of nondurable goods increased $0.6 billion (0.2 percent) to $251.7 billion, led by beverage and tobacco products. Wood shipments rose by 1.7 percent while Paper fell by 0.4 percent.
 

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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 25.1 percent decrease in not-seasonally adjusted rail shipments in May (relative to April), and a 2.8 percent drop from a year earlier. The reason give the for the year-over-year decline was decreased coal shipments; excluding coal carloads, shipments increased 4.2 percent. Seasonal adjustments dampened the 25.1 percent March-to-April increase to +1.8 percent. Rail shipments of forest-related products were higher in May than a year earlier.

The PCI, which tracks diesel use for over-the-highway trucking, rose by 0.8 percent on a seasonally and workday adjusted basis in May, extending the 0.1 percent rise in April. The PCI’s increase disagreed with the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) advance seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, which fell by 0.7 percent in May.
 

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Inventories decreased $1.4 billion (0.2 percent) to $604.5 billion. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.27, down from 1.28 in April. Inventories of durable goods increased $1.6 billion (0.5 percent) to $365.6 billion -- the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992. Transportation equipment led the increase in durables inventories.

Inventories of nondurable goods decreased $3.0 billion (1.2 percent) to $238.9 billion. Petroleum and coal products led the decrease, down $2.3 billion (4.3 percent) to $51.9 billion. Wood and Paper inventories dropped 0.2 and 0.1 percent, respectively.
 

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New orders for manufactured goods increased $3.3 billion (0.7 percent) to $469.0 billion in May. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.4 percent. New orders for durable goods in May increased $2.7 billion (1.3 percent) to $217.4 billion), led by transportation equipment. Nondurable goods orders increased $0.6 billion (0.2 percent) to $251.7 billion.