What is Macro Pulse?

Macro Pulse highlights recent activity and events expected to affect the U.S. economy over the next 24 months. While the review is of the entire U.S. economy its particular focus is on developments affecting the Forest Products industry. Everyone with a stake in any level of the sector can benefit from
Macro Pulse's timely yet in-depth coverage.


Thursday, September 20, 2012

August 2012 Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization and Capacity

Click image for larger version

Industrial production fell 1.2 percent in August after having risen 0.5 percent in July. Hurricane Isaac restrained output in the Gulf Coast region at the end of August, reducing the rate of change in total industrial production by an estimated 0.3 percentage point. Manufacturing output decreased 0.7 percent in August after having risen 0.4 percent in both June and July. Precautionary shutdowns of oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in advance of the hurricane contributed to a drop of 1.8 percent in the output of mines for August. The output of utilities declined 3.6 percent. At 96.8 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in August was 2.8 percent above its year-earlier level. Industrial production decreased by 0.2 percent for Wood Products and by 0.3 percent for Paper.
 
Click image for larger version

Click image for larger version

Capacity utilization for total industry moved down 1.0 percentage point to 78.2 percent, a rate 2.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972--2011) average. Capacity utilization was unchanged for both Wood Products and Paper.
 
Click image for larger version

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

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.