US Manufacturing Output Unexpectedly Falls

2026-09-18 13:24 By Agna Gabriel 1 min. read

Manufacturing output in the US declined 0.3% in August, ending a seven-month period of consecutive increases and falling short of market expectations for a 0.3% rise.

The decline was driven primarily by weaker durable-goods production, which fell 0.5% amid broad-based decreases across categories.

In contrast, output of nondurable goods was unchanged during the month, providing some stability to overall manufacturing activity.

Production in other manufacturing industries, including publishing and logging, increased 1%.

Meanwhile, manufacturing capacity utilisation fell by 0.3 percentage point to 75.7% in August.

The rate remained 2.5 percentage points below its long-run average for the 1972–2025 period, highlighting continued spare capacity across the sector.



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US Manufacturing Output Unexpectedly Falls
Manufacturing output in the US declined 0.3% in August, ending a seven-month period of consecutive increases and falling short of market expectations for a 0.3% rise. The decline was driven primarily by weaker durable-goods production, which fell 0.5% amid broad-based decreases across categories. In contrast, output of nondurable goods was unchanged during the month, providing some stability to overall manufacturing activity. Production in other manufacturing industries, including publishing and logging, increased 1%. Meanwhile, manufacturing capacity utilisation fell by 0.3 percentage point to 75.7% in August. The rate remained 2.5 percentage points below its long-run average for the 1972–2025 period, highlighting continued spare capacity across the sector.
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