The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is reporting that a recent slowdown in manufacturing was due to adverse winter weather.
“For much of the past month, people have been questioning how much of the recent softness in the manufacturing sector was due to weather and how much stemmed from other factors,” said Chad Moutray, NAM chief economist. “The data released last week support the view that it was largely weather related, with numerous winter storms keeping shoppers from the stores and closing factories temporarily.”
Moutray said recent reports show manufacturing is rebounding.
“Manufacturing production increased 0.8 percent in February, nearly offsetting January’s 0.9 percent decline, with capacity utilization for the sector rising from 75.9 percent to 76.4 percent,” he said. “Similar rebounds were seen in the March surveys from the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserve Banks, and more importantly, manufacturers continue to be mostly upbeat about new orders and shipments over the next six months.”
Read the full NAM report here.
