Industrial production and capacity utilization.Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Capacity Utilization measures the rate at which a firm makes use of their capital productive capacities, such as factories and machinery. Capacity Utilization generally rises when the economy is healthy and falls when demand softens. Released for publication on May 13 Industrial production edged up 0.1 percent in April, based on preliminary estimates, after having fallen a downward revised 0.6 percent in March. Production of motor vehicles rose again in April, with a jump in truck assemblies accounting for most of the gain. Outside of motor vehicles and parts, industrial production declined 0.2 percent. Total industrial capacity utilization decreased 0.2 percentage point to 78.3 percent. At 105.1 percent of its 1987 annual average, total industrial production in April was 3.4 percent below its year-ago level. In market groups, production of consumer goods consumer goods Any tangible commodity purchased by households to satisfy their wants and needs. Consumer goods may be durable or nondurable. Durable goods (e.g., autos, furniture, and appliances) have a significant life span, often defined as three years or more, and other than motor vehicles was little changed in both March and April. This firming in production, after four months of significant declines, mostly reflected gains in output of durable consumer goods, such as furniture, carpeting, and appliances. Output of nondurable non·du·ra·ble adj. Not enduring; being in a state of constant consumption: nondurable items such as paper products. n. A consumable item: nondurables such as food. consumer goods continued weak, with the largest decline in April in the output of consumer fuels. Production of business equipment other than motor vehicles fell 0.3 percent in April, as another sharp drop in industrial equipment was only partially offset by a small gain in information processing information processing: see data processing. information processing Acquisition, recording, organization, retrieval, display, and dissemination of information. Today the term usually refers to computer-based operations. equipment. After having fallen sharply for the past eight months, the output of construction supplies apparently changed little in April, buoyed by improvements in lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to and related products. Output of materials was unchanged in April after having fallen every month since last September September: see month. . Much of the improvement resulted from increased production of parts for motor vehicles; the output of paper and textiles also moved up. However, in April, there were further declines in the production of metals and chemicals, and a drop in energy materials. In industry groups, manufacturing output increased 0.2 percent in April, while production at mines fell sharply and output of utilities was little changed. The operating rate Operating rate The percentage of total production capacity of a company, industry, or country that is being used. operating rate The portion of capacity at which a business operates. for manufacturing slipped to 77.1 percent, its lowest level since August 1983, when it was at 76 percent. Utilization for advanced processing industries held steady in April, while the rate for primary processing fell off slightly. Production picked up in April for many manufacturing industries manufacturing industries npl → industrias fpl manufactureras manufacturing industries npl → industries fpl de transformation , including motor vehicles and parts, textiles, and furniture. Production of fabricated fab·ri·cate tr.v. fab·ri·cat·ed, fab·ri·cat·ing, fab·ri·cates 1. To make; create. 2. To construct by combining or assembling diverse, typically standardized parts: metal products, particularly those related to the motor vehicle industry, also rose in April after having declined for the past half-year. In addition, lumber output has changed little, on balance, since February, after falling, on average, nearly 2 percent a month between July and February. Among the many industries in which output continued to fall in April, primary metals production dropped 0.8 percent, its fifth straight monthly decline. Likewise, weakness was still apparent in the chemical industry, as well as in transportation equipment other than motor vehicles. PHOTO : Industrial production indexes PHOTO : Capacity and industrial production |
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