– US Industrial Production Plunges As March Auto Manufacturing Tumbles Most Since 2008:
The US economy has never – ever – seen Industrial Production drop YoY for seven months in a row without being in a recession. Down 2.0% YoY in March, the weakest since December and down 0.6% MoM (weakest since Feb 2015) the decline in factory output is driven a 1.6% plunge in vehicle production (2.8% collapse in motor vehicles specifcally) in March. This 1.76% drop is the worst for a March since 2008.
As The Fed details,
Manufacturing output decreased 0.3 percent in March. The production of durables moved down 0.4 percent. The largest declines, about 1 1/2 percent, were registered both by motor vehicles and parts and by electrical equipment, appliances, and components. Several industries posted increases, with the largest, nearly 1 percent, for computer and electronic products. After increasing 0.9 percent in January and decreasing 0.5 percent in February, the output of nondurable manufacturing edged down in March, as gains in the production of petroleum and coal products and of chemicals nearly offset declines for most other industries. The output of other manufacturing (publishing and logging) fell almost 1 percent.
It really should be no surprise that Auto production is hitting the wall, as we have been discussing, inventories are extreme…price and sales weakness is occurring amid a mal-investment-driven excess inventory-to-sales at levels only seen once before in 24 years…
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