US durable goods gain in Jan but mostly in aircraft orders

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--New orders for US durable goods shot up by 3% in January from December, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, but the gain was due to aircraft purchases while overall durable goods orders fell by 0.6%.

In its monthly report, the department said that new orders for durable goods increased by $5.2bn (€3.8bn) or 3% in January to $175.7bn and followed a 1.9% gain in December from November.

However, the department noted that the improvement was wholly due to a 126% jump in new orders for commercial airliners and an 11.6% advance for purchases of military aircraft.

Excluding those two categories, durable goods orders fell by 0.6% in January, the department said.

Aircraft orders often are made in multiple-plane purchases and in any given month those commitments - or their lack - can affect manufacturing data disproportionately.

Durable goods are manufactured products meant to last three years or more and include such items as automobiles, appliances, transportation and manufacturing equipment. 

Many durable goods, such as computers and automobiles, are major downstream markets for chemicals and chemicals-based products used in manufacturing processes or as end-product components.

The department said that unfilled orders for durable goods increased narrowly by $400m or 0.1% in January to $718.1bn. While small, the January advance in unfilled orders was the first such gain in 15 months.

Inventories of produced manufactured durable goods fell by $100m in January to $302.6bn, representing no statistically significant change from December when inventories declined by 0.2%.

Inventories of already produced durable goods have been decreasing for 13 months, according to the department.

US durable goods orders and inventories*

	Jan           (bn $)	Jan vs Dec          (%)	Dec vs Nov (r)              (%)
New orders	175.7	3	1.9
Unfilled orders	718.1	0.1	-0.9
Total inventories	302.6	0.0	-0.2