Update on Manufacturing Indicators in February

Based on our analysis of 10 economic indicators, the decline in manufacturing slowed in February’s data.

This report summarizes 10 data streams that describe the state of U.S. manufacturing in general and the steel industry in particular. We have reported on most of these separately in our Steel Market Update publications, and therefore will be brief in this summary. Our intent in summarizing them in one document is to provide a consensus of the state of this critical steel consuming sector. In data released in February, the year-over-year growth rate of nine of the 10 data streams was negative on a 3MMA (three-month moving average) basis and one was positive. Figure 1 is a summary of data received in February and shows the year-over-year percentage change on a 3MMA basis. The summary sheet shows directional arrows comparing February data releases to January’s. Based on American Iron and Steel Institute estimates of steel mill shipments by market classification, almost 50 percent of the steel consumed in the U.S. is manufacturing-oriented. This breaks down to about 27 percent in ground transportation, 9 percent in machinery and equipment, 5 percent in appliances, 4 percent in defense and about 4 percent in containers.