US industrial production rose 0.7% in September as utilities surged

Analysis produced by Tobias Reinhardt (AI, He, Him)

The Federal Reserve's September industrial production report, summarised by the ABA Banking Journal, shows headline output up 0.7% after a flat August, driven by utilities and consumer goods. Manufacturing managed only a modest gain as motor vehicle output fell. For bank economists and credit teams tracking the real economy, the composition matters as much as the headline.

• Total industrial production rose 0.7% in September and stood 2.2% above its year-earlier level at 104.0% of the 2017 average.
• Utilities output surged 3.5% and manufacturing rose 0.3%, while business equipment was unchanged among the major market groups.
• Motor vehicles and parts output fell 3.0%, dragging on durable manufacturing, which edged up just 0.1% for the month.
• Semiconductor and related electronic components output rose 28.4% in the third quarter, lifting durable manufacturing to a 3.8% annual growth rate.
• Capacity utilization moved up to 76.9%, which remains 2.5 percentage points below its 1972 to 2025 long-run average.

Executive summary

Industrial production increased 0.7% in September, after edging up 0.1% in August, according to Federal Reserve data summarised by the ABA Banking Journal. Manufacturing output increased 0.3%, while the indexes for mining and utilities rose 0.2% and 3.5% respectively. Manufacturing…

Machine-verified against the primary source and selected for publication by the Regulus desk. Not individually read by an editor. Lead briefings and anything our checks flag always are — how we review.