September Durable Goods Up, Momentum Slows

Orders for big-ticket, US-made goods rose last month, helped by aircraft and autos. But excluding transportation, new orders decreased by 0.5%, as companies pulled back on orders for big-ticket items in September.

Transportation equipment, up five of the last six months, drove the increase by $1.9 billion, or 2.1%, to $95.4 billion, the government data showed.

Shipments of manufactured durable goods, up 16 of the last 17 months, rose 0.3% to $274.2 billion. That’s after a 1.3% increase in August. Transportation equipment, up 11 of the last 12 months, drove the increase, rising 1.1% to $90.5 billion.

Click here for more detail on the September advance report from the US Census Bureau on durable goods manufacturers’ shipments, inventories, and orders. See also Figure 1 below.

Revised and Recently Benchmarked August Data

Revised seasonally adjusted August figures for all manufacturing industries were: New orders, $549.2 billion (revised from $548.4 billion); shipments, $549.0 billion (revised from $547.9 billion); unfilled orders, $1,131.9 billion (revised from $1,132.1 billion); and total inventories, $800.3 billion (revised from $800.2 billion).

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com