The US Census Bureau released their full report on manufacturers' shipments, inventories and orders for September 2010 Wednesday, which showed that new orders for manufactured goods in September, up three consecutive months, increased $8.8 billion or 2.1 percent to $420 billion. Overall shipments, up two of the last three months, increased $1.7 billion or 0.4 percent to $418.2 billion. This followed a 0.2 percent August decrease, and unfilled orders, up six consecutive months, increased $8 billion or 1 percent to $813.5 billion.
The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 5.64, up from 5.61 in August, and inventories, which were up eight of the last nine months, increased $3.5 billion or 0.7 percent to $531.2 billion in September, following a 0.4 percent August increase. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was unchanged at 1.27. Transportation equipment experienced the largest inventory increase, $1.2 billion or 1.4 percent to $82.7 billion over September.
$27.3 million in fabricated metal products were shipped in September down only 0.1 percent from August; however, year-to-date shipments are up 5.1 percent over the first nine months of 2009.
Machinery shipments rose 1.9 percent over September, and were up 6.3 percent year-over-year. Year-to-date shipments in construction machinery soared 25 percent over 2009 while shipments of metalworking machinery increased 10.4 percent over the same period.
Automobile shipments fell slightly from August although year-to-date numbers were up 21.4 percent over the first nine months of 2009.
The value of manufacturers' new orders were down 0.3 percent from August but year-to-date numbers were still up 40.5 percent over 2009, as the value of manufacturers' new orders of iron and steel mill products surged 54.7 percent year-over-year.