U.S. factory orders rise 1.1% in April

WASHINGTON – Total new orders received by U.S. manufacturers in April rose $5.0 billion compared with the month before to $445.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Manufacturing and Construction Division reported today. The 1.1-percent increase in factory orders was the second in as many months; it followed a March gain of 1.5 percent. Analysts had expected factory orders would fall 0.1 percent in April, based on the median estimate from a Bloomberg News survey of 65 economists. (Their estimates ranged from a 1-percent decline to a 1-percent increase.)
New orders for non-durable manufactured goods – including energy products – rose $6.2 billion, or 2.8 percent, to $230.8 billion, the Census Bureau said. But new orders for durable goods fell $1.2 billion to an April total of $214.4 billion, led by a 24-percent decline in commercial aircraft orders and a 4.2-percent decline in auto orders, the bureau said. The 0.6-percent drop followed a March decline of 0.2 percent.
Unfilled orders for factory goods – durable and non-durable – increased $7.3 billion, or 0.9 percent, to a new high of $804.4 billion after rising 1.3 percent in March. Unfilled orders have increased in 26 of the past 27 months, the bureau noted.
Meanwhile, shipments of all manufactured goods rose $9.6 billion, or 2.2 percent, to $443.9 billion – the highest level since at least 1992 – after rising 1.2 percent in March.
Non-durable goods shipments increased $6.2 billion, or 2.8 percent, to a new high of $230.8 billion, after rising 3.1 percent in March. The increase was led by shipments of petroleum and coal products, which rose $3.6 billion, or 6.2 percent, to $62.0 billion, the bureau said.
Durable goods shipments rose $3.4 billion to $213.1 billion, ending their two-month decline. April’s 1.6-percent increase erased the March decline of 0.9 percent.
“Normally, in a recession, you would see manufacturing deeply hit,” Stephen Gallagher, chief U.S. economist at Societe Generale in New York, told Bloomberg News. “And what we’re seeing in this current episode, what would be unique to this recession, would be a much healthier manufacturing picture.”
Additional information, including the full Preliminary Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders (M3) for April 2008, is available from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of the Census, Manufacturing and Construction Division, at www.census.gov/m3.