WASHINGTON – The value of new factory orders fell by 0.2% in November, as expected in an MNI survey, due to a decline in nondurable goods orders and an unrevised flat reading for durable goods orders, data released by the Commerce Department Wednesday morning showed.
The November decline followed a downward revision to October factory orders, which are now reported up 1.3% after being originally reported up 1.5%.
Petroleum and coal products shipments fell 1.5% in November following a 0.6% decline in the previous month, contributing to the drop in nondurables orders in the month. Nondurables shipments are equivalent to orders in this report.
Total durable goods orders are still reported as flat in November, the same as in the advance estimate.
Total factory orders excluding transportation fell 0.3% in November after 0.1% rise in the previous month. Durables orders outside of transportation were flat, a slight upward revision from the 0.1% decline in the advance estimate.
Transportation orders themselves were revised down to a flat reading in November from the originally reported 0.4% rise.
Motor vehicles orders are now reported up 0.6% and defense aircraft orders rose 46.9%. These were offset by a 22.2% decline in nondefense aircraft orders and a 1.5% drop in orders for ships and boats.
Nondefense capital goods new orders fell 6.3% and were still down 0.3% when the civilian aircraft category is excluded.
Overall factory shipments rose 0.2% in the month and nondefense capital goods shipments were up 2.2%. Excluding the civilian aircraft component, nondefense capital goods shipments fell 0.6%.
Factory inventories were down 0.3% in November, pulling the inventory-to-shipments ratio down to 1.35 from 1.36 in October. Unfilled orders posted a 0.2% increase.
Overall, the report was roughly as expected, a payback from the decent orders month seen in Oct that leaves the 4Q average for new orders slightly behind the 3Q average.
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