14 Out of 18 Manufacturing Industries Report Growth in January

The report states that the January Production Manufacturing Index registered 53.5%, dropping 1.6% from 55.1% the previous month.

The top five manufacturing categories with the highest January growth are: Primary Metals, Wood Products, Printing & Related Support Activities; Miscellaneous Manufacturing and Fabricated Metal Products.

The bottom five with the least growth were Chemical Products, Machinery, Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products, Computer & Electronic Products and Furniture & Related Products, while Textile Mills and Nonmetallic Mineral Products were down.

The following factors make up ISM’s Manufacturing index:

• The New Orders Index registered 52.9 percent, a decrease of 4.9 percentage points from the seasonally adjusted reading of 57.8 percent in December.
• The Production Index registered 56.5 percent, 1.2 percentage points below the seasonally adjusted December reading of 57.7 percent.
• The Employment Index registered 54.1 percent, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points below the seasonally adjusted December reading of 56 percent. Inventories of raw materials registered 51 percent, an increase of 5.5 percentage points above the December reading of 45.5 percent.
• The Prices Index registered 35 percent, down 3.5 percentage points from the December reading of 38.5 percent, indicating lower raw materials prices in January relative to December.

The ISM reports that comments from its manufacturing panel indicate that most industries, but not all, are experiencing strong demand as 2015 kicks off. “The West Coast dock slowdown continues to be a problem, negatively impacting both exports and imports as well as inventories,” one panelist said.

Read the Institute for Supply Management’s Report on Business here.