During March, the manufacturing sector continued to shed inventories at near a record rate. The 0.8% decline followed a revised 1.3% cutback during February. During the last three months the 12.1% annualized rate of stock-pile decumulation was near the record. The series dates back to 1958. That accelerated rate is in spite of a 1.0% rate of accumulation in petroleum inventories, now that prices have firmed. Excluding oil factory inventories fell at a 12.6% three-month rate that was only slightly exceeded in 2001.

The three-month rates of inventory destocking in several industries have been more than notable. Inventories of electrical equipment & appliances have fallen at a 24.1% rate while textile product inventories were down at a 34.8% clip. Steep production cutbacks pulled furniture inventories down at a 21.8% rate since December while inventories of primary metals fell at a 32.5% pace. Lesser rates of decline were registered in the machinery industry (-12.3%) and by computers & electronic products (-11.9%).

The Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories and Orders (MSIO) data is available in Haver's USECON database.

Inventory accelerator in general equilibrium from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is available here.