July 15, 2004 10:30 AM, EDT

Industrial Output Falls 0.3%

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ndustrial production fell 0.3% in June, the Federal Reserve said Thursday, the first decline since March.

The decrease in output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities followed May's 0.9% jump. May's originally reported 1.1% gain was the biggest since a 2% jump in August 1998.

The manufacturing sector is one of trucking’s largest and most important customers, and when it is growing, the demand for trucking services generally rises.

The Fed revised down March production to minus 0.1%, from unchanged. Before that, the last time the index fell was in May 2003.

Still, industrial production is up 5.6% from June 2003 and economists expect growth to continue the rest of the year, Bloomberg reported. Economists expected the June index to rise 0.1%, Bloomberg said.

The Fed also said the proportion of industrial capacity in use fell to 77.2% from 77.6%.

Work at factories, which accounts for almost 90% of industrial production, fell 0.1% last month, after rising 0.6%

Business equipment production, including transportation and information processing equipment, rose 0.4% in June after rising 1.5% the month before.