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New orders for manufactured goods inched up 0.2% in September, following a 1.3% increase in August. At the same time, new orders for manufactured goods grew 3.5% over the year. When excluding transportation, new orders rose 0.2% over the month and 0.8% over the year. Orders for durable goods moved up 0.5%, following a 3.0% increase in August. Year to date, durable goods orders are up 7.3%. Meanwhile, nondurable goods orders ticked down 0.1% in September, after falling 0.4% in August. Nondurable goods are down 0.1% over the year.

New orders for defense aircraft and parts led the increase in durable goods orders for a second consecutive month, jumping 30.9%, following August’s 48.3% surge. In September, the largest monthly decrease occurred in mining, oil field and gas field machinery, which fell 17.8%, after increasing 22.8% the prior month. The largest over-the-year changes occurred in nondefense aircraft and parts (up 118%) and photographic equipment (down 5.7%).

Factory shipments stayed the same in September, after stepping down 0.3% in August. Shipments over the year rose 1.4%. Shipments excluding transportation increased 0.2% in September, following a 0.3% decrease the previous month. Shipments for durable goods improved 0.1% in September, following a 0.1% decline in August, and are up 3.0% year to date. Meanwhile, nondurable goods shipments inched down 0.1% after falling 0.4% the prior month and are down 0.1% year to date.

Unfilled orders for all manufacturing industries increased 0.7% in September after a similar rise in August. Unfilled orders over the year jumped 8.3%. Inventories ticked down 0.1%, after a similar decrease the prior month, and the inventories-to-shipments ratio remained the same at 1.56. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio for durable goods increased from 6.93 in August to 6.98 in September.