U.S. industrial production increased in August following a sharp decline in July.

The Federal Reserve’s latest Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Report showed that production increased 0.8% in August month-to-month, exceeding the market expectation of a 0.2% increase by economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal.

At 103.1% of its 2017 average, total industrial production in August remained the same year-over-year. Capacity utilization moved up 78%, which is down 1.7 percentage points year-over-year.

Total August production was impacted by increases of 0.9% in manufacturing and 0.8% in mining, while utilities remained flat.

source: tradingeconomics.com

Market Groups

Most major market groups saw gains in August. The index for customer goods increased by 0.7% month-to-month, driven by a 10.5% increase in automative products. The index for materials saw an increase of 0.9%, with gains in all its subcomponents.

Defense and space equipment showed positive growth with a 0.5% increase. While business equipment was the sole major market group to see a decline, with a 0.2% decrease in August.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output increased by 0.9% in August month-to-month and was 0.2% above its year-earlier level. Nondurable manufacturing saw a 0.2% monthly decrease, while durable manufacturing increased 2.1%.

Specific industries such as printing and support (-1.4%) and petroleum and coal products (-2.3%) were partially offset by gains in chemical (0.4%) and paper (0.4%). Mining output increased 0.8% in August, and utilities output dropped 0.9% year-over-year.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing increased by 0.6 percentage points to 77.2% in August.