American Factories Reverse 40-Month Slump With New Growth

The manufacturing sector saw more economic activity in February, marking the second consecutive month of growth and only the third month of growth in the past 40 months, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said Tuesday (March 3).

The ISM Manufacturing PMI was gauged at 52.4% in February after reaching 52.6% in January, ISM said in a Tuesday press release.

A Manufacturing PMI reading above 50% indicates that the manufacturing sector is generally expanding, the release said.

“In February, U.S. manufacturing activity remained in expansion territory, although growing at a slower pace than the month before,” Susan Spence, chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said in the release.

A reading above 47.5% generally indicates that the overall economy is expanding. By that measure, February was the 16th consecutive month in which the economy expanded, per the release.

Among the five subindexes that factor into the Manufacturing PMI, three were found to be in expansion while two remained in contraction, per the release. New orders, production and supplier deliveries were in expansion in February, as they were in January. Employment and inventories stayed in contraction, though they improved compared to the previous month.

Four of the six largest manufacturing industries expanded in February. Chemical products, transportation equipment, computer and electronic products, and machinery expanded. The petroleum and coal products industry, and the food, beverage and tobacco products industry, did not expand.

An unidentified respondent from the chemical products industry told ISM, per the release: “January sales continued to provide positive indications for growth opportunities. Data center, health care, and food and beverages remain positive growth areas. We continue to receive price increase notifications from suppliers based on unsupported tariff claims and are expanding corporate staff to support sales growth.”

S&P Global reported Monday (Feb. 2) that the performance of the U.S. manufacturing economy improved again in February, though the pace of growth was the slowest in seven months.

“Businesses were often disrupted by extreme weather, which has clouded insights into the underlying strength of economic growth and suggests we may see some rebound once the weather clears, and it is encouraging to see manufacturers reporting improved optimism about the outlook,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a Monday press release.