US industrial Feb output flat

Washington : Manufacturing output posted its sixth straight increase in February, but unseasonably warm weather again dragged down utilities, keeping total industrial production flat in the month, the Federal Reserve reported yesterday.
Multiple manufactured product lines saw increases of one per cent and higher including machinery, plastic, paper and metal products, pushing total manufacturing output up 0.5pc compared to January, the same increase as the prior month.
Motor vehicles and parts were just shy of that mark with an increase of 0.8pc in the month, reversing the decline of the same amount in January. Manufacturing output -- a key focus of President Donald Trump’s administration -- was 1.2pc higher than a year ago. The sector represents more than 70pc of the overall index.
Meanwhile, mining output increased 2.7pc, and was 1.8pc higher than February 2016.
“In short, the details were much stronger than the utilities-depressed headline,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a research note.
“Manufacturing rose solidly and mining was up sharply. Both of those sectors appear to have picked up ... in recent months.”
However, utilities output fell 5.7pc, nearly the same decline as in January, “as continued unseasonably warm weather further reduced demand for heating,” the report said.
That decline offset the gains in manufacturing and mining, to keep the overall Industrial Production index unchanged, after a drop of 0.1pc in the prior month, also attributed to unusually high temperatures.
Economists had been expecting industrial production to rise 0.2pc.
Industrial capacity in use last month slipped to 75.4pc, just a tenth lower than in January, and exactly as analysts forecast. Capacity utilized in manufacturing rose three-tenths to 75.6pc.