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New orders for manufactured goods rose 4.3% in March, up for three consecutive months. When excluding transportation, new orders slipped 0.2%. Orders for durable goods jumped 9.2%, following a 0.8% increase in February. Year to date, durable goods orders are up 5.5%. Nondurable goods orders ticked down 0.3% in March after increasing 0.1% in February. Nondurable goods orders are up 0.8% over the year.

New orders for nondefense aircraft and parts led the increase in durable goods by leaping 139.0%, after shrinking 7.4% in February. In March, the largest monthly decrease occurred in mining, oil field and gas field machinery, which declined 16.3%, after rising 11.7% the month prior. The largest over-the-year changes also occurred in nondefense aircraft and parts (up 99.3%) and ships and boats (down 19.2%).

Factory shipments decreased 0.1% in March, after rising 0.7% in February. Shipments over the year increased 1.6%. Shipments excluding transportation were flat in March, following a 0.4% increase the previous month. Shipments for durable goods improved 0.1% in March, down from 1.3% in February but up 2.4% year to date. Meanwhile, nondurable goods shipments declined 0.3% in March but are up 0.8% year to date.

Unfilled orders for all manufacturing industries rose 2.0% in March, following a 0.1% increase in February. Inventories rose 0.1%, the same as the past three months, and the inventories-to-shipments ratio remained the same at 1.45. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio for durable goods increased to 6.98 from 6.81 in February.