News & Insights

Industrial production rose 0.4% in December, while manufacturing output increased 0.2% after moving up 0.4% in November. At 97.4% of its 2017 average, manufacturing production advanced 2.0% from December 2024. Capacity utilization for manufacturing was 75.6%, unchanged from November but up 1.1% over the past year. Capacity utilization remains 2.6 percentage points below its long-term average from 1972 to 2024.

In December, most major market groups posted gains. Consumer goods production grew 0.7%, while business equipment output increased 0.8%. The decline in production of consumer durables (down 0.7%) was led by home electronics’ output falling 1.4%, while the index for consumer nondurables rose 1.1%, experiencing gains in all but two of its categories. Among business equipment, the 1.7% gain in defense and space equipment more than offset a 0.2% loss in the index for information processing equipment. At the same time, the index for materials ticked up 0.2%, while the index for construction supplies inched down 0.3%, and the index for business supplies remained unchanged in December.

Durable goods manufacturing advanced 0.1% in December and 3.1% from the year prior. Monthly growth was greatest for primary metals (up 2.4%), while wood products posted the largest decline (down 2.3%). Meanwhile, led by a 1.8% gain in petroleum and coal products output, nondurable goods manufacturing increased 0.3% in December and 1.0% from December 2024.