A worker installing barrel heads on oak barrels at Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville, Ky., last week.
Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News
U.S. industrial production continued to bounce back from a decline early in the coronavirus pandemic, advancing in November from the prior month on increased manufacturing and mining output.
Industrial production, a measure of factory, mining and utility output, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in November, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a 0.2% rise.
The rise in output followed a revised 0.9% rise in October, compared with a 1.1% initial estimate.
Industrial production decreased sharply in March and April as the pandemic took hold in the U.S., but has gradually recovered in subsequent months. The pace of gains slowed in late summer and into the fall, however, and output overall in November remained 5% below February levels, according to the Fed.
Manufacturing output, the biggest component of industrial production, increased 0.8% in November from the prior month. That was the seventh straight month of gains, according to the Fed, as production of motor vehicles and parts rose 5.3% last month.
The U.S. economy
Mining output rose 2.3% over the month, but was 12.5% lower than November 2019. Utilities output fell 4.3% in November from the prior month.
Capacity utilization, which reflects how much industries are producing compared with what they could potentially produce, rose to 73.3% in November from a revised 72.8% in October. Economists expected a 73.0% reading for November.
Write to Amara Omeokwe at [email protected]
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