NEW YORK - Industrial production was unchanged in March, the second straight unchanged month, while capacity use slid to 78.6% from 78.7% last month, the Federal Reserve reported Tuesday.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected production to rise 0.3% and 78.6% capacity use.
For the quarter, industrial production rose 5.4%.
The rise in manufacturing output was broad based in the quarter, and even when excluding motor vehicles and parts, which surged at a rate near 40%, output grew 8.3%, with “all but a few major industries” up at least 5%.
Mines production grew 0.2%, while utilities added 1.5%.
“For the quarter, however, the output of utilities dropped at an annual rate of 13.8%, largely as a result of unseasonably warm temperatures over the past several months, while the output of mining fell 5.4%,” the Fed said in a release.
Industrial production was 3.8% above its level a year ago.
Capacity utilization slid to 78.6%, off 2.1 percentage points from its year ago reading.
