US Industrial Production Is Growing At The Fastest Pace In 4 Years As Manufacturing Rebounds

Amid hot inflation (CPI, PPI, Import/Export prices) and AI-infected growth scares, US Industrial Production data this morning added another twist, printing far better than expected as capacity utilization picked up further in September.

Headline Industrial Production rose 0.7% MoM in September (almost double the 0.5% MoM expected) with August’s unchanged revised up to +0.1% MoM. That is the sixth straight month of gains for industrial production…

…lifting the annual increase in US industrial production to +2.25% – the highest since Sept 2022.

Utilities were the main driver: +3.5% in September (and a strong +14.8% annual rate in Q3) and Mining picked up.

US Manufacturing rebounded from August’s dip (better than expected)…

Durable manufacturing was up only slightly as motor vehicles & parts fell 3.0%. Nondurables rose 0.4%, though semiconductors and related components were very strong.

Capacity Utilization also surprised to the upside (76.9% vs 76.5% exp).

That is the highest since Dec 2023 (but still 2.5 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2025) average).

Nevertheless, it was a clear beat on the side of growth (albeit uneven as autos lagged), driven largely by utilities, with manufacturing showing a modest rebound after prior softness.