Today, the Federal Reserve released their monthly read of industrial production showing a further continuation of the simply stunning declines to the aggregate production and widespread declines across many industries, particularly those related to consumer spending, construction, business vehicles and HVAC, resulting in a significant year-over-year decline to the total index of 12.78% as compared to March 2008 and a 1.48% decline since February 2008.
“Final product” consumer durable goods continue to show weakness falling 22.80% as an aggregate on a year-over-year basis, with particularly significant declines coming specifically from home appliances, furniture and carpeting which declined by 20.69% on a year-over-year basis.Construction supply production has been showing the most severe contraction seen in at least the last 20 years with wood products falling 29.26% on a year-over-year basis.
Although automotive production has been showing weakness since the middle of 2004, business vehicle production is now showing a stark contraction.
Finally, HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) appears to be firmly reflecting the substantial pullback in fixed commercial investment falling a stunning 31.66% on a year-over-year basis.
The following charts (click for larger) show the overall consumer durable component along with the Home Appliances, Furniture and Carpeting sub-component on both a time series and year-over-year basis, construction supply production with the wood products sub-component, and general and business related vehicle production all overlaid with the last two recessions for comparisons purposes.
