by Calculated Risk on 2/25/2021 02:02:00 PM

From the Kansas City Fed: Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Climbed Higher

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the February Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that Tenth District manufacturing activity climbed higher in February compared to a month ago and a year ago, and expectations for future activity increased.

“Regional factories reported higher activity in February,” said Wilkerson. “Most businesses reported more production and shipments, despite some difficulties due to the extreme weather events recently. However, rising materials prices and shipping delays have negatively affected 85% of firms.”
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The month-over-month composite index was 24 in February, up from 17 in January and 14 in December. The composite index is an average of the production, new orders, employment, supplier delivery time, and raw materials inventory indexes. Manufacturing activity growth was driven by durable goods plants, specifically by primary and fabricated metals, machinery, and transportation equipment. Month-overmonth indexes for production and employment increased at a faster pace in February and supplier delivery time rose significantly. Shipments and new orders growth was positive in February, but slower than in recent months.
emphasis added

This was the last of the regional Fed surveys for February.

Here is a graph comparing the regional Fed surveys and the ISM manufacturing index:

Click on graph for larger image.

The New York and Philly Fed surveys are averaged together (yellow, through February), and five Fed surveys are averaged (blue, through February) including New York, Philly, Richmond, Dallas and Kansas City. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) PMI (red) is through January (right axis).

Based on these regional surveys, it seems likely the ISM manufacturing index will be solid again in February.