Industrial Production Rises 0.1%; Capacity in Use Unchanged

Industrial production in the United States rose 0.1% in June as factories produced more consumer goods and vehicles, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.

Production at factories, mines, and utilities also rose 0.1% in May. The proportion of industrial capacity in use was 74.3%, matching May's two-decade low.

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. Work at factories, which accounts for almost 90% of industrial production, rose 0.4% last month.

Economists expected a 0.1% increase in industrial production and a capacity rate of 74.3%, Bloomberg said.

The first consecutive increases in industrial production since August suggest factories are producing just enough to meet stronger consumer demand, Bloomberg said.

The report said motor vehicle production rose 1.1% in June after a decline of 2.5% in May.

The Fed said that it would revise the industrial production index later this year to reflect newly available source data from the Census Bureau's survey of manufacturers and data from the U.S. Geological Survey on mining.

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