New orders for manufactured goods in March, down four of the last five months, decreased 10.3% to $445.8 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.
New orders for manufactured durable goods decreased $36.6 billion, or 14.7%, to $212.6 billion. Transportation equipment drove the decrease, declining 41.3% to $50.9 billion. New orders for manufactured nondurable goods decreased $14.4 billion, or 5.8%, to $233.2 billion.
Shipments of manufactured durable goods, down eight of the last nine months, decreased 4.7% to $240.4 billion.
Inventories of manufactured durable goods increased 0.6% to $437.4 billion, unchanged from the previously published increase.
Read the Census release.