Prior month -1.1% revised from -0.7% initially reportedManufacturing sales increased by 0.2% to $71.1 billion in January. The estimate was for a 0.4% gainSales rose in 11 of the 21 subsectors, with transportation equipment (+4.3%) and chemicals (+3.5%) leading the gains.The aerospace product and parts industry group saw the largest decline at -16.7%.Sales in constant dollars rose by 1.1% in January.The Industrial Product Price Index decreased slightly by 0.1%.
Inventories decreased by 0.2%:
Total inventories decreased by 0.2% to $122.1 billion in January, following a 1.4% drop in December.The decrease was primarily due to lower raw material inventories, which fell by 1.2%.Significant declines in inventories were seen in primary metals (-4.2%) and petroleum and coal (-4.5%).The inventory-to-sales ratio remained unchanged at 1.72 in January, indicating the time required to exhaust inventories if sales continued at the current level.
Capacity utilization rises in the month:
The capacity utilization rate for the total manufacturing sector rose from 75.1% in December to 77.1% in January, mainly due to increased production.Significant increases were seen in the chemical (+7.5 percentage points) and transportation equipment (+3.7 percentage points) subsectors.These gains were partially offset by declines in the non-metallic mineral (-7.1 percentage points) and computer and electronic product (-6.1 percentage points) subsectors. Â
