U.S. February Industrial Production - Weather back to normal, trend marginally negative
February industrial production rose by 0.1% after a 0.5% January decline, while manufacturing rose by 0.8% after a 1.1% January decline. Cold weather in January lifted utilities but depressed manufacturing. February saw weather return to normal. The net picture looks marginally negative.
Manufacturing output saw marginal declines in Q3 and Q4 and the first two months of 2024 suggests nothing much has changed in terms of underlying trend. Ex autos manufacturing rose by 0.8% in February after a 0.9% decline in January.
Mining was also hit by weather in January, falling by 2.9%, before reversing most but not all of the decline with a 2.2% February increase. Mining swings were however outweighed by those of utilities, which surged by 7.4% in the cold January before rising by 7.5% in February as weather returned to normal.
Capacity utilization was unchanged at 78.3% though January was revised down from 78.5%, moving further below December’s 78.7%. Manufacturing increased to 77.0% from 76.4% but remains below the 77.4% seen in both November and December.
