FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015, AT 8:30 A.M. EDT

Adriana Stoica

Economic Indicators Division

(301) 763-4832

M3-1 (15)-04

CB15-87

Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders 

April 2015

New Orders 

 New orders for manufactured durable goods in April

decreased $1.2 billion or 0.5 percent to $235.5 billion, 

the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This

decrease, down two of the last three months, followed a 

5.1 percent March increase. Excluding transportation, 

new orders increased 0.5 percent. Excluding defense, 

new orders increased 0.2 percent.

 

 Transportation equipment, also down two of the last 

three months, drove the decrease, $2.0 billion or 2.5

percent to $77.9 billion.

Shipments

 Shipments of manufactured durable goods in April, 

down three of the last four months, decreased $0.1

billion or 0.1 percent to $240.5 billion. This followed a 

1.5 percent March increase. 

 Primary metals, down six of the last seven months,

drove the decrease, $0.5 billion or 2.1 percent to $21.6

billion.

 

Unfilled Orders 

 Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in 

April, down four of the last five months, decreased $0.3

billion, or virtually unchanged, to $1,203.1 billion. This 

followed a 0.1 percent March increase. 

 Machinery, down six of the last seven months, drove

the decrease, $0.9 billion or 0.7 percent to $115.7

billion.

Inventories

 Inventories of manufactured durable goods in April, up 

twenty-four of the last twenty-five months, increased 

$0.9 billion or 0.2 percent to $401.5 billion. This was at 

the highest level since the series was first published on a 

NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a virtually 

unchanged March increase.

 Transportation equipment, up sixteen of the last 

seventeen months, led the increase, $0.6 billion or 0.5

percent to $130.3 billion. 

Capital Goods

 Nondefense new orders for capital goods in April

increased $0.3 billion or 0.3 percent to $81.2 billion. 

Shipments increased $1.3 billion or 1.6 percent to $80.2

billion. Unfilled orders increased $1.1 billion or 0.1

percent to $763.3 billion. Inventories increased $0.3 

billion or 0.2 percent to $177.4 billion.

 Defense new orders for capital goods in April

decreased $0.9 billion or 9.5 percent to $8.4 billion. 

Shipments decreased $0.3 billion or 2.8 percent to $9.5

billion. Unfilled orders decreased $1.0 billion or 0.7

percent to $151.4 billion. Inventories increased $0.5

billion or 2.5 percent to $21.7 billion.

Revised and Recently Benchmarked March Data

 Revised and recently benchmarked seasonally adjusted 

March figures for all manufacturing industries were: new 

orders, $478.5 billion (revised from $477.8 billion); 

shipments, $482.4 billion (revised from $482.7 billion); 

unfilled orders, $1,203.5 billion (revised from $1,202.6

billion); and total inventories, $647.8 billion (revised 

from $648.4 billion).

Figures in text are adjusted for seasonality, but not for inflation. Figures on new and unfilled orders exclude data for semiconductor 

manufacturing. For data, call (301) 763-4673 or go to <http://www.census.gov/m3>. Revised and more detailed estimates, plus 

nondurable goods data, will be published on June 2, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The Advance Report on durable goods for May is scheduled 

for release on June 23, 2015 at 8:30 a.m. EDT. See back page for survey description. To receive the latest updates on the Nation's key 

economic indicators, download the America's Economy app for Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. To learn more about this 

release and the other indicators the U.S. Census Bureau publishes, join us for the Investigating Economic Indicators Webinar Series. For 

more information, visit www.census.gov/econ/webinar.

“Virtually unchanged” indicates that the change is less than 0.05 percent for a percent increase or decrease. 
 2

Table 1. Durable Goods Manufacturers' Shipments and New Orders 1

[Estimates are shown in millions of dollars and are based on data from the Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders Survey.]

Seasonally Adjusted Not Seasonally Adjusted 

Monthly Percent Change Monthly Year to Date

Item Percent

Apr Mar Feb Mar - Feb - Jan - Apr Mar Apr Change

2015 2 2015 r 2015 Apr 2 Mar r Feb 2015 2 2015 r 2014 2015 2014 2015/2014

DURABLE GOODS

 Total: 

 Shipments................................ 240,542 240,679 237,047 -0.1 1.5 -1.1 240,963 259,023 232,671 932,532 901,328 3.5

 New Orders4

.............................. 235,527 236,711 225,263 -0.5 5.1 -3.5 229,540 256,163 234,544 906,553 918,651 -1.3

 Excluding transportation:

 Shipments................................ 162,994 162,909 162,620 0.1 0.2 -0.5 163,792 171,733 162,851 633,444 624,932 1.4

 New Orders4

.............................. 157,675 156,890 155,961 0.5 0.6 -1.7 159,264 168,576 159,945 623,535 627,815 -0.7

 Excluding defense:

 Shipments................................ 228,837 228,543 225,547 0.1 1.3 -1.2 229,996 245,186 221,635 887,705 855,838 3.7

 New Orders4

.............................. 224,655 224,299 216,866 0.2 3.4 -3.0 219,963 241,188 216,339 866,044 865,705 0.0

 Manufacturing with unfilled orders:

 Shipments................................ 172,556 172,334 170,085 0.1 1.3 -1.6 170,521 186,794 163,671 668,280 641,035 4.3

 New Orders.............................. 172,224 173,239 163,406 -0.6 6.0 -4.7 164,904 188,080 172,366 662,128 681,252 -2.8

 Primary metals:

 Shipments................................ 21,587 22,050 22,224 -2.1 -0.8 -2.5 22,226 23,133 23,767 88,921 90,833 -2.1

 New Orders.............................. 21,648 21,426 21,927 1.0 -2.3 -3.2 22,021 22,601 23,294 89,419 93,057 -3.9

 Fabricated metal products:

 Shipments................................ 30,098 30,161 30,192 -0.2 -0.1 -1.2 30,449 30,998 30,017 117,670 114,764 2.5

 New Orders.............................. 29,791 29,229 29,485 1.9 -0.9 -2.4 30,547 31,323 30,519 119,376 119,716 -0.3

 Machinery:

 Shipments................................ 33,508 33,180 33,150 1.0 0.1 0.8 34,251 36,306 34,196 130,758 132,401 -1.2

 New Orders.............................. 32,653 31,682 31,871 3.1 -0.6 -3.1 34,038 34,567 35,855 130,806 143,309 -8.7

 Computers and electronic products4

:

 Shipments................................ 28,970 28,887 28,207 0.3 2.4 0.5 28,039 31,461 27,148 109,039 107,384 1.5

 New Orders.............................. 24,628 25,549 23,723 -3.6 7.7 -0.4 23,408 29,585 21,724 94,789 89,686 5.7

 Computers and related products:

 Shipments................................ 2,127 2,261 2,057 -5.9 9.9 -1.3 1,702 2,975 1,883 7,546 8,142 -7.3

 New Orders.............................. 2,214 2,292 2,080 -3.4 10.2 -1.4 1,789 3,006 1,850 7,713 8,011 -3.7

 Communications equipment:

 Shipments................................ 3,832 3,786 3,621 1.2 4.6 0.7 3,363 4,403 3,262 13,855 13,661 1.4

 New Orders.............................. 3,792 4,127 4,185 -8.1 -1.4 5.3 3,867 4,935 4,047 16,317 16,889 -3.4

 Electrical equipment, appliances, 

 and components: 

 Shipments................................ 10,389 10,453 10,571 -0.6 -1.1 -0.1 10,144 11,108 10,067 40,395 39,722 1.7

 New Orders.............................. 10,540 10,696 10,600 -1.5 0.9 1.6 10,266 11,235 10,498 41,282 41,318 -0.1

 Transportation equipment: 

 Shipments................................ 77,548 77,770 74,427 -0.3 4.5 -2.5 77,171 87,290 69,820 299,088 276,396 8.2

 New Orders.............................. 77,852 79,821 69,302 -2.5 15.2 -7.3 70,276 87,587 74,599 283,018 290,836 -2.7

 Motor vehicles and parts:

 Shipments................................ 50,751 51,116 48,328 -0.7 5.8 0.1 52,402 56,218 46,504 198,873 181,923 9.3

 New Orders.............................. 50,691 50,556 48,514 0.3 4.2 -0.1 51,789 55,674 46,241 198,640 182,801 8.7

 Nondefense aircraft and parts:

 Shipments................................ 14,913 14,425 14,357 3.4 0.5 -2.0 13,403 17,056 10,919 53,341 44,592 19.6

 New Orders.............................. 16,340 17,027 12,103 -4.0 40.7 -12.1 8,733 17,718 8,976 42,173 50,632 -16.7

 Defense aircraft and parts:

 Shipments................................ 4,457 4,640 4,452 -3.9 4.2 5.4 4,020 5,532 4,318 16,686 18,059 -7.6

 New Orders.............................. 4,443 5,098 2,313 -12.8 120.4 -42.8 3,602 5,394 3,497 13,742 16,155 -14.9

 All other durable goods: 

 Shipments................................ 38,442 38,178 38,276 0.7 -0.3 -0.6 38,683 38,727 37,656 146,661 139,828 4.9

 New Orders.............................. 38,415 38,308 38,355 0.3 -0.1 -0.6 38,984 39,265 38,055 147,863 140,729 5.1

 Capital goods3

:

 Shipments................................ 89,638 88,664 87,267 1.1 1.6 -2.2 86,132 98,481 82,280 340,018 328,544 3.5

 New Orders.............................. 89,685 90,307 83,478 -0.7 8.2 -4.3 82,366 100,073 91,402 333,939 354,868 -5.9

 Nondefense capital goods:

 Shipments................................ 80,186 78,935 78,244 1.6 0.9 -2.4 77,173 87,426 73,405 304,024 292,402 4.0

 New Orders.............................. 81,249 80,987 75,521 0.3 7.2 -6.0 74,971 87,957 75,344 300,472 310,573 -3.3

 Excluding aircraft:

 Shipments........................... 69,657 69,073 68,391 0.8 1.0 -2.3 67,737 75,835 66,196 268,449 263,796 1.8

 New Orders.......................... 69,136 68,425 67,410 1.0 1.5 -5.1 68,863 75,897 69,255 274,902 282,008 -2.5

 Defense capital goods:

 Shipments................................ 9,452 9,729 9,023 -2.8 7.8 -0.9 8,959 11,055 8,875 35,994 36,142 -0.4

 New Orders.............................. 8,436 9,320 7,957 -9.5 17.1 16.2 7,395 12,116 16,058 33,467 44,295 -24.4

r

 Revised data due to late receipts and concurrent seasonal adjustment.

1

 Estimates of shipments and new orders are for the duration of the period, while estimates of unfilled orders and total inventories are for the end of the period. Not seasonally adjusted estimates of 

shipments and new orders include adjusted data for non-calendar reporters. Seasonally adjusted estimates include concurrent adjustments for holiday and trading-day differences, where appropriate, 

as well as seasonal variation, based on the results of the latest annual review of the model parameters. Estimates are not adjusted for price changes.

2 Based on advance sample. Estimates of manufacturers' shipments, inventories, and orders are subject to survey error and revision. One major component of survey error is nonsampling error, which 

includes errors of coverage, response and nonreporting. Since the survey panel is not a probability sample, estimates of sampling error cannot be calculated. For further details on survey design, 

methodology, and data limitations, see http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3.

3

 The Capital Goods Industries include Nondefense : small arms and ordnance; farm machinery and equipment; construction machinery; mining, oil, and gas field machinery; industrial machinery; vending, 

laundry, and other machinery; photographic equipment; metalworking machinery; turbines and generators; other power transmission equipment; pumps and compressors; material handling equipment; all 

other machinery; electronic computers; computer storage devices; other computer peripheral equipment; communications equipment; search and navigation equipment; electromedical, measuring, and 

control instruments; electrical equipment; other electrical equipment, appliances, and components; heavy duty trucks; aircraft; railroad rolling stock; ships and boats; office and institutional furniture; and 

medical equipment and supplies.

 Defense Capital Goods include : small arms and ordnance, communications equipment, aircraft; missiles, space vehicles, and parts, ships and boats, and search and navigation equipment.

4 Estimates and percent changes of shipments and inventories for the semiconductor industry are included in computers and electronic products, and all other applicable aggregate totals.

 Estimates and percent changes for new orders and unfilled orders exclude semiconductor industry data. 
 3

Table 2. Durable Goods Manufacturers' Unfilled Orders and Total Inventories 1

[Estimates are shown in millions of dollars and are based on data from the Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders Survey.]

Seasonally Adjusted Not Seasonally Adjusted 

Monthly Percent Change Monthly Percent

Item Change

Apr Mar Feb Mar - Feb - Jan - Apr Mar Apr 2015/

2015 2 2015 r 2015 Apr 2 Mar r Feb 2015 2 2015 r 2014 2014

DURABLE GOODS

 Total: 

 Unfilled Orders4......................... 1,203,136 1,203,468 1,202,563 0.0 0.1 -0.6 1,208,750 1,214,367 1,130,028 7.0

 Total Inventories....................... 401,478 400,605 400,588 0.2 0.0 0.3 403,383 399,675 384,817 4.8

 Excluding transportation:

 Unfilled Orders4

......................... 398,007 398,643 399,789 -0.2 -0.3 -0.4 404,067 402,789 391,163 3.3

 Total Inventories....................... 271,211 270,947 270,721 0.1 0.1 0.0 272,238 270,195 262,568 3.7

 Excluding defense:

 Unfilled Orders4

........................... 1,017,573 1,017,072 1,016,443 0.0 0.1 -0.4 1,022,034 1,026,261 932,148 9.6

 Total Inventories....................... 374,934 374,613 374,284 0.1 0.1 0.1 376,616 373,604 359,501 4.8

 Manufacturing with unfilled orders:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 1,203,136 1,203,468 1,202,563 0.0 0.1 -0.6 1,208,750 1,214,367 1,130,028 7.0

 Total Inventories....................... 327,723 327,232 328,103 0.2 -0.3 0.4 329,326 325,876 314,448 4.7

 Primary metals:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 35,699 35,638 36,262 0.2 -1.7 -0.8 36,680 36,885 36,810 -0.4

 Total Inventories....................... 37,938 38,248 39,292 -0.8 -2.7 -1.4 37,862 38,298 37,061 2.2

 Fabricated metal products:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 82,096 82,403 83,335 -0.4 -1.1 -0.8 83,532 83,434 82,601 1.1

 Total Inventories....................... 49,455 49,374 49,387 0.2 0.0 0.3 49,901 49,569 47,723 4.6

 Machinery: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 115,716 116,571 118,069 -0.7 -1.3 -1.1 117,227 117,440 118,978 -1.5

 Total Inventories....................... 67,032 67,059 66,814 0.0 0.4 0.1 67,501 66,683 66,039 2.2

 Computers and electronic products4

:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 132,473 132,132 130,597 0.3 1.2 0.5 134,092 132,917 123,279 8.8

 Total Inventories....................... 45,970 45,558 45,186 0.9 0.8 0.6 45,877 44,793 43,272 6.0

 Computers and related products:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 2,639 2,552 2,521 3.4 1.2 0.9 2,639 2,552 1,858 42.0

 Total Inventories....................... 3,924 3,865 3,955 1.5 -2.3 -0.8 3,869 3,585 3,933 -1.6

 Communications equipment:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 38,342 38,382 38,041 -0.1 0.9 1.5 39,107 38,603 34,688 12.7

 Total Inventories....................... 5,759 5,777 5,798 -0.3 -0.4 0.0 5,676 5,727 6,066 -6.4

 Electrical equipment, appliances, 

 and components: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 23,310 23,159 22,916 0.7 1.1 0.1 23,446 23,324 21,452 9.3

 Total Inventories....................... 16,769 16,672 16,552 0.6 0.7 0.0 16,949 16,574 16,511 2.7

 Transportation equipment: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 805,129 804,825 802,774 0.0 0.3 -0.6 804,683 811,578 738,865 8.9

 Total Inventories....................... 130,267 129,658 129,867 0.5 -0.2 0.8 131,145 129,480 122,249 7.3

 Motor vehicles and parts:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 21,428 21,488 22,048 -0.3 -2.5 0.9 21,797 22,410 19,798 10.1

 Total Inventories....................... 36,135 36,085 35,402 0.1 1.9 1.7 36,383 36,200 32,907 10.6

 Nondefense Aircraft and parts:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 614,016 612,589 609,987 0.2 0.4 -0.4 612,608 617,278 541,325 13.2

 Total Inventories....................... 66,394 66,386 66,720 0.0 -0.5 -0.2 66,956 66,148 62,882 6.5

 Defense Aircraft and parts: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 66,433 66,447 65,989 0.0 0.7 -3.1 66,445 66,863 68,681 -3.3

 Total Inventories....................... 12,929 12,677 13,028 2.0 -2.7 0.6 13,026 12,654 12,661 2.9

 All other durable goods: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 8,713 8,740 8,610 -0.3 1.5 0.9 9,090 8,789 8,043 13.0

 Total Inventories....................... 54,047 54,036 53,490 0.0 1.0 0.0 54,148 54,278 51,962 4.2

 Capital goods3

:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 914,767 914,720 913,077 0.0 0.2 -0.4 918,155 921,921 849,582 8.1

 Total Inventories....................... 199,016 198,187 198,579 0.4 -0.2 0.4 199,891 196,591 191,710 4.3

 Nondefense capital goods:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 763,338 762,275 760,223 0.1 0.3 -0.4 765,442 767,644 684,938 11.8

 Total Inventories....................... 177,354 177,054 177,222 0.2 -0.1 0.1 178,103 175,356 171,291 4.0

 Excluding aircraft: 

 Unfilled Orders.................... 249,475 249,996 250,644 -0.2 -0.3 -0.4 252,819 251,693 239,737 5.5

 Total Inventories................... 121,664 121,525 121,339 0.1 0.2 0.2 121,831 120,050 119,604 1.9

 Defense capital goods:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 151,429 152,445 152,854 -0.7 -0.3 -0.7 152,713 154,277 164,644 -7.2

 Total Inventories....................... 21,662 21,133 21,357 2.5 -1.0 2.8 21,788 21,235 20,419 6.7

See footnotes at end of Table 1 
4 

Survey Description 

This report is compiled from results of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, 

and Orders (M3) survey, which is a voluntary survey authorized by Title 13 of the United States Code. 

This survey provides statistics on a calendar-month basis for manufacturers' value of shipments, new 

orders (net of cancellations), end-of-month order backlog (unfilled orders), end-of-month total inventory 

(at current cost or market value), and inventories by stage of fabrication (materials and supplies, work-inprocess, and finished goods). Data published from the M3 survey are based on a panel of approximately 

4,800 reporting units that represent approximately 3,000 companies and provide an indication of monthto-month change for the Manufacturing Sector. These reporting units may be divisions of diversified 

large companies, large homogenous companies, or single-unit manufacturers in 92 industry categories, 

which are combined into 65 publication levels due to the small monthly panel size. The survey 

methodology assumes that the month-to-month changes of the total operations of the reporting units in the 

M3 panel effectively represent the month-to-month movements of all establishments that make up the 

category. 

The companies for which shipments data are currently reported or imputed in the M3 survey represent 

approximately 61 percent of the total value of shipments for manufacturing establishments in the 2012 

Economic Census, and these companies include almost two-thirds of the manufacturing companies with 

$500 million or more in shipments in the 2012 Economic Census. The companies for which shipments 

data are currently reported in the M3 survey represent approximately 54 percent of the total value of 

shipments for manufacturing establishments in the 2012 Economic Census. Statistics based on the M3 

panel differ from the results that would be obtained from a complete enumeration of all manufacturing 

companies. The M3 panel is not based on a probability sample; therefore, the sampling errors that are 

normally provided with sample surveys cannot be measured. Nonsampling errors are attributable to many 

sources. The use of company or divisional reports to estimate the monthly change for establishments is 

one source of nonsampling error. The use of primarily large companies to represent the month-to-month 

movement of all companies is another potential source. Any corrections will be published in the full 

report. Corrections received after the full report will be released in the next month’s advance report. Any 

revisions made later than two months will be reflected in the annual benchmark publication. 

Additional survey documentation can be found on our web site: http://www.census.gov/m3. 

Benchmark notice 

Revised historical data from the Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (M3) Survey 

were issued on May 14, 2015. These revisions result from benchmarking the shipments and 

inventories data to the 2012 Economic Census and the 2013 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) 

data on a 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) basis, as well as revised 

ASM benchmarks for prior years on a 2007 NAICS basis; incorporating the unfilled orders to 

shipments ratios obtained from the 2013/2012 and 2012/2011 Manufacturers’ Unfilled Orders 

Surveys by applying these ratios to the respective Census or ASM shipments data, as well as 

incorporating revised unfilled orders to shipments ratios for prior years; adjusting the new orders data 

to be consistent with the benchmarked shipments and unfilled orders data; correcting monthly data for 

late receipts, reclassifications of reported data, and revisions to previously reported data; and updating 

the seasonally adjusted data based on the results of benchmarking and the recent annual review of the 

seasonal adjustment models. These revisions spanned the seasonally adjusted data for January 1997 

through March 2015 and the data not seasonally adjusted for January 2001 through March 2015. An 

updated Press Release contains revised monthly tables for January 2015 through March 2015 on a 

2012 NAICS basis, which will be the new basis for publishing data from the M3 Survey starting with 

the April 2015 Advance Report on Durable Goods. Please call M3 staff on (301) 763-4832 with any 

questions.