WASHINGTON – The value of new factory orders fell by 3.3% in July, falling slightly lower than the expected -3.1% by analysts from an MNI survey. Nondurable goods orders rose 0.4%, but durable goods orders were unrevised at a 6.8% decline, data released by the Commerce Department Tuesday morning showed.
Petroleum and coal products shipments rose by 2.2% in July, leading the increase in nondurables orders. Nondurables shipments are equivalent to orders in this report.
Total factory orders excluding transportation rose 0.5% in July, while durable goods orders excluding transportation were up 0.6%, revised up from the 0.5% increase in the advance estimate.
Transportation orders fell 19.2% in July based on Tuesday's data, down slightly from -19.0% from the advance estimate. Nondefense aircraft orders fell by 70.8% in July and defense aircraft orders were up 47.8%. Motor vehicles orders fell 0.9% in July, while orders for ships and boats also fell by 3.1%.
Nondefense capital goods new orders fell 19.8%, but were up 1.0% when a 82.2% drop in the civilian aircraft category is excluded.
Overall factory shipments were up 0.3% in the month due to a 0.2% rise in durable goods shipments and a 0.4% increase in nondurables shipments. Nondefense capital goods shipments rose 2.2% and were up 1.2% excluding the civilian aircraft component.
Factory inventories were up 0.2% in the month, compared with the 0.3% increase in shipments, shifting the inventory-to-shipments ratio to lower to 1.37.
The Commerce Department's advance report on inventories showed a 0.4% gain for wholesale inventories and a 0.2% fall for retail inventories. While these data are eligible for revision, the levels as they stand now, combined with Tuesday's factory inventory data, would result in a 0.2% increase in July business inventories when that report is released on September 15, an MNI calculation showed. The revised wholesale data for July will be released on September 8 and could alter this projection.
