(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Automotive Plunge into Technical Recession Drags Down March US Manufacturing Output

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automotive, durable goods, Federal Reserve, industrial production, inflation-adjusted output, manufacturing, non-durable goods, recession, recovery, vehicles, {What's Left of) Our Economy

The Federal Reserve’s new industrial production report today showed that U.S. domestic manufacturing in March took its first monthly tumble (0.38 percent) since August and its biggest since winter-affected February, 2015 (0.49 percent). Revisions (which incorporate the latest annual revision results released last month) were negative, and undercut the strong preliminary readings reported for January and February.

March’s manufacturing output fall-off was led by the biggest sequential plunge in constant dollar automotive output (2.96 percent) since May’s 3.19 percent decrease. As a result, the combined vehicles and parts industry, which has led U.S. manufacturing’s comeback during most of the current recovery, fell into a technical recession. It’s real production is now down by 0.38 percent since last February. Vehicle output was especially weak in March, plummeting by 4.77 percent for its worst month since last May’s 4.94 percent shrinkage in real terms.

March’s poor numbers mean that real U.S. domestic manufacturing output is now down on net since January, 2006 (by 0.38 percent), and is 4.43 percent below its all-time high, hit in December, 2007. The weak March automotive numbers helped drive monthly durable goods output down by its greatest percentage (0.83 percent) since January, 2014’s winter-affected 0.99 percent sequential contraction.

Here are the manufacturing highlights of the Federal Reserve’s new release on March industrial production:

>U.S. real manufacturing output dropped in March on month for the first time since last August, and the 0.38 sequential fall-off of 0.38 percent was industry’s biggest since February, 2015’s 0.49 percent – which was affected by unusually cold weather.

>Just as discouraging, the revisions (which incorporated the latest annual industrial production revision released by the Fed in late March) weakened initially reported combined January and February growth estimates that were industry’s best two-month stretch since February and March, 2014.

>January’s 0.54 percent monthly gain – which was upgraded in last month’s industrial production report – was revised down to 0.39 percent. February’s initially reported 0.51 percent sequential growth was downgraded to 0.35 percent growth.

>The overall March manufacturing monthly production fall-off was led by the worst figures for the automotive sector since last May.

>Real output in vehicles and parts combined – which has led manufacturing’s comeback since the current economic recovery began in mid-2009 – sank by 2.96 percent on month in March, the biggest such drop since last May’s 3.19 percent.

>The results were bad enough to plunge the sector into a technical recession. After-inflation automotive output is off by 0.38 percent since February, 2016.

>Automotive’s poor March owed mainly to a huge 4.77 percent decrease in inflation-adjusted vehicles production – the worst such figure since last May’s 4.94 percent.

>Another consequence of the overall real manufacturing production decline in March – industry’s constant-dollar output is now down on net (by 0.38 percent) since January, 2006.

>And since its pre-recession (all-time) peak, reached in December, 2007, price-adjusted domestic manufacturing output has now fallen by 4.43 percent.

>Overall real U.S. manufacturing output was up 0.98 percent on year in March – faster than its 0.12 percent inflation-adjusted output increase between the previous Marches.

>Automotive’s poor March performance helped lead to an after-inflation 0.83 percent monthly drop in manufacturing’s durable goods super-sector. That decrease was its first since August, and its biggest such shrinkage since winter-affected January, 2014 (0.99 percent).

>Year-on-year, inflation-adjusted durable goods output was up 1.45 percent. Between March, 2015 and March, 2016, if fell by 0.98 percent.

>Since its pre-recession peak, hit in December, 2007, durable goods production after inflation is down by 0.25 percent.

>Real production in the non-durable goods super-sector edged up by 0.13 percent on month in March – its third straight sequential increase.

>Year-on-year, non-durables’ price-adjusted production inched up by only 0.45 percent in March – much slower than its 1.37 percent advance between the previous Marches.

>Since its pre-recession peak – in July, 2007 – output in the non-durables super-sector has shrunk by 9.59 percent.

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Can U.S. Manufacturing’s Rebound Continue Without Automotive?

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automotive, industrial production, manufacturing, manufacturing renaissance, parts, recovery, vehicles, {What's Left of) Our Economy

If you harbor any doubt that the automotive sector has been driving domestic U.S. manufacturing’s fortunes since the Great Recession began, and into the current historically weak recovery, throw them overboard.

I’ve just finished giving my blazing new laptop a workout by doing a deep dive into yesterday’s industrial production report from the Federal Reserve. The new figures make absolutely clear that, so far, as goes automotive, so goes manufacturing – and whatever valid hopes for a renaissance are still justified. Moreover, they indicate that the next few months may go far toward determining whether manufacturing’s rebound from an horrific recessionary downturn can continue much longer.

Certainly this pattern has held since the U.S. economy’s most recent woes began in earnest. From the recession’s December, 2007 onset through its official end in June, 2009, overall manufacturing production fell by 20.48 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. But strip out autos and parts, and the downturn was somewhat less dramatic – 18.14 percent.

You can follow along here by clicking on the seasonally adjusted January 1986 to present link here at the homepage of the Fed’s interactive production databases.  Warning!  Major eye strain could result! 🙂

Since the recovery began, overall manufacturing has grown by 27.41 percent after inflation. But without vehicles and parts, this real growth sinks to 20.42 percent. Put differently, manufacturing production is now up by 1.31 percent in real terms over the nearly seven years since the recession began. But without the booming auto sector, it’s actually down by 1.42 percent.

The trend shows some signs of slowing – but only some. For example, look at the numbers this year since March (to avoid the distortions caused by the severe winter). From March through September, overall manufacturing production has grown by 1.86 percent post inflation. Without automotive, the real growth rate has been only 1.61 percent. That’s a 13.50 percent difference.

During the recovery, the growth gap was nearly twice as big – 25.50 percent. But from March, 2013 through September, 2013, the gap was smaller – 10.11 percent.

One big consequence of automotive’s lead role in the last few months is that its volatility has helped produce big swings in real manufacturing output. During July, a monster 9.39 monthly jump in real automotive output helped boost overall monthly manufacturing production up 0.82 percent – its best performance since the final stages of the recovery from winter in March. Without that increase – the biggest in percentage terms since September, 2009, when production was in its early post-recession bounce – manufacturing grew by only a negligible 0.13 percent.

The automotive sector took a breather in August, as real output sank by 6.98 percent – the worst monthly performance since April, 2011. The rest of American industry eaked out a 0.01 percent inflation-adjusted output gain. But the automotive falloff pushed overall production down by 0.46 percent – its worst since the winter-aided 1.03 percent plunge in January.

The automotive slump continued in September, as production after inflation decreased another 1.40 percent. The rest of manufacturing managed to expand by a solid 0.58 percent. But autos and parts dragged overall real production down to 0.47 percent.

The last two months’ worth of data of course indicate that after leading the manufacturing rebound, auto and parts production is now holding it back. Whether the rest of U.S. industry can keep growing satisfactorily without robust auto output, or whether recent automotive struggles will extend to the rest of manufacturing, will shape not only domestic industry’s future, but the entire economy’s.