June 2012 Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and New Orders

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the value of manufactured-goods shipments decreased $5.3 billion (1.1 percent) to $469.9 billion in June. Durable goods decreased $0.3 billion (0.1 percent) to $224.8 billion, led by transportation equipment. Nondurable goods decreased $5.0 billion (2.0 percent) to $245.1 billion, led by petroleum and coal products.

Forest products shipments fell: Wood by 0.9 percent and Paper 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 18.1 percent decrease in not-seasonally adjusted rail shipments in June (relative to May), and a 1.3 percent drop from a year earlier; excluding coal carloads, shipments increased 2.2 percent. Seasonal adjustments turned the 18.1 percent May-to-June decrease to a 2.9 percent increase. Rail shipments of forest-related products were higher in June 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 increased $0.4 billion (0.1 percent) to $605.4 billion. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.29, up from 1.27 in May. Durable goods increased $1.6 billion (0.4 percent) to $367.2 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 $1.2 billion (0.5 percent) to $238.2 billion; petroleum and coal products led the decrease. Wood and Paper inventories rose by 0.7 and 0.6 percent, respectively.
 

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New orders for manufactured goods decreased $2.1 billion (0.5 percent) to $465.8 billion in June. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 1.8 percent. Durable goods orders increased $2.9 billion (1.3 percent) to $220.7 billion, led by transportation equipment. Nondurable goods orders decreased $5.0 billion (2.0 percent) to $245.1 billion.