Factory Orders Increase 0.1%; Excluding Transportation Rise 1.3%

rders placed with factories rose 0.1% in March, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The increase to $378.2 billion followed a 0.5% decline in February, previously reported as a 0.2% increase, Commerce said.

Excluding transportation orders, factory orders were up 1.3%. The overall increase beat analysts’ projections of a March decline, Bloomberg reported.

Transportation orders including motor vehicles and commercial aircraft fell 7.3% following a 0.3% decline in February. Commercial aircraft orders fell 23% after rising 29%, Commerce said.

The orders were boosted by the biggest demand for oil and coal in a decade, Bloomberg reported.

Bookings for durable goods, which account for about 55% of total orders, fell 2.3% in March, the biggest in a year, after falling 0.1% in February.

ommerce also said that factory inventories rose 0.6%, the same as a month earlier.