WASHINGTON – The value of new factory orders rose for the third straight month by 1.0% in February, as expected, with nondurable goods orders up 0.2% to add to an upward revised 1.8% gain in durable goods orders, data released by the Commerce Department Tuesday morning showed.
Chemical products shipments rose by 1.1% in February, leading the increase in nondurables orders. Nondurables shipments are equivalent to orders in this report.
Total factory orders excluding transportation rose 0.4% in February, while durable goods orders excluding transportation rose 0.5%.
Transportation orders rose 4.4% in February based on Tuesday's data. Nondefense aircraft orders rose by 47.5% in February and defense aircraft orders fell 12.8%. Motor vehicles orders rose 0.3% in February, and orders for ships and boats also gained 5.3%.
Nondefense capital goods new orders rose 4.2%, but were down 0.1% when a surge in the civilian aircraft category is excluded.
Overall factory shipments rose 0.3% in the month as nondurables gained 0.2% and durables shipments rose 0.3%. Nondefense capital goods shipments were flat overall though they rose 0.1% excluding the civilian aircraft component.
Factory inventories also rose 0.2% in the month, so the inventory-to-shipments ratio held steady at 1.31.
The Commerce Department's advance report on inventories indicated a 0.4% gain for both wholesale inventories and retail inventories in February. While these data are eligible for revision, the levels as they stand now, combined with Tuesday's factory inventory data, would result in a 0.3% increase in February business inventories when that report is released on April 14, an MNI calculation showed.
