U.S. industrial production up 0.1 pct in August

Biz.Yahoo/Reuters ^ | September 15, 2003

[Starwind]

UPDATE - U.S. industrial production up 0.1 pct in August
Monday September 15, 10:13 am ET

(Adds details and background)WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities eked out a small gain in August, although the pace at which industries operated remained slow, the Federal Reserve said in a report on Monday.

The Fed said industrial production rose a weaker-than-expected 0.1 percent in August after an upwardly revised 0.7 percent gain in July. The percentage of productive capacity in use held steady at 74.6 percent, the Fed said.

Wall Street analysts had expected a rise of 0.2 percent in the production index. The capacity use number came in close to expectations.

July production had originally been reported as a 0.5 percent gain.

The Fed report reflected the soft state of U.S. manufacturing, which has lost about 2.7 million jobs since July 2000. In recent months, though, factories have appeared to be on the rebound somewhat. In its periodic "beige book" report, an anecdotal look at the U.S. economy released earlier this month, the Fed said 10 of its 12 regional banks said factory activity had improved in July and August.

However, in Monday's report, the Fed said manufacturing output -- which makes up more than 80 percent of overall industrial production -- dipped 0.1 percent in August, hurt in part by a slide in auto production.

Mining activity posted a small 0.2 percent gain, while utilities' output rose 1.9 percent after a 3.8 percent increase in July.

Motor vehicle assembly rates dipped to an annual rate of 11.73 million vehicles in August as car and car part production fell 2.6 percent. The Fed said auto and parts production was reduced "in part, by the power outage that affected several states and some start-up problems associated with model changeovers."

[Starwind]

The full Fed Reserve Board report is at INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION - August 2003

[Starwind]

DJ Table Of Data On US Industrial Production

.
                              AUG.    JULY    JUNE   AUG.'02
                                                    TO AUG.'03
Industrial Production Index  110.2   110.1   109.3
Monthly Percent Changes
   Industrial Prod. Index      0.1     0.7    -0.1    -1.0
   Indus Prod. Ex-High Tech    0.0     0.7    -0.2    -1.7
   Manufacturing              -0.1     0.4     0.2    -1.4
   Consumer Durables          -1.3     2.1     1.0    -0.5
   Consumer Nondurables        0.2     0.0    -0.4    -0.7
   Business Equipment          0.5     0.3     0.4    -1.7
   Materials                   0.0     1.1    -0.2    -1.3
   Utilities                   1.9     3.8    -3.3     2.9
   Mining                      0.2     0.3     0.4    -0.4

(Changes are increases unless preceded by minus sign.)
 

  (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires

  09-15-03 0915ET- - 09 15 AM EDT 09-15-03

[lelio]

Do you have the raw numbers? How do you measure 0.1%? If you sell a machine for $100k that means you get an extra $100 for it. Or if you sell 1000 computers a month you've sold another 1. How is this measurable?

[Starwind]

How is this measurable?

I'm not sure how this is measured. You might go to table 9 of the full report for some of the details about the category you cited.

[lelio]

Thanks. I'm just wondering how on earth you can measure such a minute amount. If your car dealership sells 35 cars a day it means that one day that month you sold 36. Maybe that one salesman is cheering.