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FOR RELEASE AT 8:30 AM EDT, FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2018

MONTHLY ADVANCE REPORT ON MANUFACTURERS’ SHIPMENTS, 

INVENTORIES AND ORDERS APRIL 2018

Release Number: CB 18-76 M3-1 (18)-04

May 25, 2018 — The U.S. Census Bureau announces the April advance report on manufacturers’ 

shipments, inventories and orders:

New Orders

New orders for manufactured durable goods in April decreased $4.2 billion or 1.7 percent to $248.5 billion, 

the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease, down following two consecutive monthly 

increases, followed a 2.7 percent March increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.9 

percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 1.9 percent. Transportation equipment, also down 

following two consecutive monthly increases, drove the decrease, $5.6 billion or 6.1 percent to $87.1

billion.

Shipments

Shipments of manufactured durable goods in April, down following eight consecutive monthly increases, 

decreased $0.1 billion or 0.1 percent to $246.7 billion. This followed a 0.7 percent March increase. 

Transportation equipment, down following three consecutive monthly increases, drove the decrease, $1.8 

billion or 2.1 percent to $82.8 billion.

DURABLE GOODS – NEW ORDERS

APRIL 2018 $248.5 billion -1.7%°

MARCH 2018 

(revised) $252.7 billion +2.7%°

Next release: June 27, 2018

Data adjusted for seasonal variation but not for price changes.

°Statistical significance is not measurable for this survey. The Manufacturers' 

Shipments, Inventories, and Orders estimates are not based on a probability sample, 

so the sampling error of these estimates cannot be measured nor can the 

confidence intervals be computed.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders, 

May 25, 2018.

May-17 Jun-17 Jul-17 Aug-17 Sep-17 Oct-17 Nov-17 Dec-17 Jan-18 Feb-18 Mar-18 Apr-18 % Change -1.2% 7.1% -7.4% 2.7% 4.7% -4.1% 2.2% 3.2% -4.2% 4.5% 2.7% -1.7%

-8.0%

-7.0%

-6.0%

-5.0%

-4.0%

-3.0%

-2.0%

-1.0%

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

DURABLE GOODS NEW ORDERS 2017-2018

Seasonally Adjusted, Month-To-Month Percentage Change

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders, 

May 25, 2018.
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Unfilled Orders

Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in April, up five of the last six months, increased $5.5

billion or 0.5 percent to $1,153.4 billion. This followed a 0.8 percent March increase. Transportation 

equipment, also up five of the last six months, led the increase, $4.2 billion or 0.5 percent to $796.2 billion.

Inventories

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in April, up seventeen of the last eighteen months, increased 

$1.2 billion or 0.3 percent to $401.7 billion. This followed a 0.2 percent March increase. Fabricated metal 

products, up fifteen of the last sixteen months, led the increase $0.4 billion or 0.8 percent to $52.0 billion. 

Capital Goods

Nondefense new orders for capital goods in April decreased $5.7 billion or 6.8 percent to $78.6 billion. 

Shipments decreased $3.6 billion or 4.6 percent to $74.1 billion. Unfilled orders increased $4.5 billion or 

0.6 percent to $713.9 billion. Inventories increased $0.8 billion or 0.5 percent to $176.1 billion. Defense 

new orders for capital goods in April increased $0.3 billion or 3.1 percent to $11.0 billion. Shipments 

increased $1.4 billion or 12.9 percent to $12.0 billion. Unfilled orders decreased $1.1 billion or 0.7 percent 

to $144.7 billion. Inventories decreased $0.3 billion or 1.4 percent to $22.2 billion.

Revised and Recently Benchmarked March Data

Revised seasonally adjusted March figures for all manufacturing industries were: new orders, $498.4 billion 

(revised from $498.3 billion); shipments, $492.6 billion (revised from $492.2 billion); unfilled orders, 

$1,147.8 billion (revised from $1,148.2 billion) and total inventories, $664.8 billion (revised from $664.3

billion).

Revised and more detailed estimates, plus nondurable goods data, will be published on June 4, 2018, at 

10:00 a.m. EDT. The Advance Report on durable goods for May is scheduled for release on June 27, 2018

at 8:30 a.m. EDT. View the full schedule in the Economic Briefing Room:<www.census.gov/economicindicators/>. The full text and tables of this release can be found at <www.census.gov/m3>.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

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

data for semiconductor manufacturing. 

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

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-in-process, and 

finished goods). Data published from the M3 survey are based on a panel of approximately 5,000 reporting 

units that represent approximately 3,100 companies and provide an indication of month-to-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-tomonth changes of the total operations of the reporting units in the M3 panel effectively represent the monthto-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 64 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 57 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: 

<www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/how_the_data_are_collected/index.html>.

RESOURCES

API

The Census Bureau’s application programming interface (API) lets developers create custom apps to reach 

new users and makes key demographic, socio-economic and housing statistics more accessible than ever 

before.

<www.census.gov/developers/>
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NEW TIME SERIES

Beginning with the release of June 2018 data on July 26, 2018, historical estimates of the Monthly Advance 

Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders will be available on a seasonally adjusted 

basis as well as a not seasonally adjusted basis at: <https://www.census.gov/econ/currentdata/>. Also, 

monthly data for the Advance report will be available in the Census Application Programming Interface 

(API).

FRED Mobile App

Receive the latest updates on the nation’s key economic indicators by downloading 

the FRED App <https://fred.stlouisfed.org/fred-mobile/> for both Apple and 

Android devices. FRED, the signature database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. 

Louis, now incorporates the Census Bureau’s 13 economic indicators.

Benchmark notice

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

issued on May 17, 2018. These revisions result from:

• benchmarking the M3 shipments and inventories data to the 2016 Annual Survey of Manufactures 

(ASM) and revised 2015 ASM data on a 2012 NAICS basis;

• incorporating the unfilled orders to shipments ratios obtained from the 2016/2015 Manufacturers’ 

Unfilled Orders (M3UFO) Survey by applying these ratios to the respective ASM shipments data, as 

well as incorporating revised unfilled orders to shipments ratios for prior years by applying them to the 

respective ASM shipments data;

• 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;

• 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 2002 through March 2018 and the data not 

seasonally adjusted for January 2007 through March 2018. An updated Press Release contains revised 

monthly tables for January 2018 through March 2018. Please call M3 staff on (301) 763-4832 with any 

questions.

###
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

2018 2 2018 r 2018 Apr 2 Mar r Feb 2018 2 2018 r 2017 2018 2017 2018/2017

DURABLE GOODS

 Total: 

 Shipments................................ 246,735 246,881 245,051 -0.1 0.7 0.7 243,157 266,548 221,573 959,248 894,344 7.3

 New Orders4

.............................. 248,496 252,678 246,039 -1.7 2.7 4.5 243,515 278,157 219,630 968,830 883,687 9.6

 Excluding transportation:

 Shipments................................ 163,914 162,269 162,493 1.0 -0.1 1.0 162,298 171,517 147,395 632,029 585,760 7.9

 New Orders

4

.............................. 161,438 159,973 159,308 0.9 0.4 1.3 161,781 172,331 147,107 633,461 587,002 7.9

 Excluding defense:

 Shipments................................ 232,894 234,359 232,003 -0.6 1.0 1.0 230,676 252,174 210,716 909,119 848,490 7.1

 New Orders4

.............................. 235,774 240,259 230,449 -1.9 4.3 2.2 231,933 261,651 207,382 919,041 840,498 9.3

 Manufacturing with unfilled orders:

 Shipments................................ 171,036 172,173 170,466 -0.7 1.0 0.6 166,588 186,777 152,634 664,111 617,562 7.5

 New Orders.............................. 176,569 181,803 175,517 -2.9 3.6 6.0 170,574 201,754 154,343 689,035 622,898 10.6

 Primary metals:

 Shipments................................ 21,223 20,792 20,229 2.1 2.8 2.3 21,586 22,111 18,044 82,848 72,762 13.9

 New Orders.............................. 21,676 21,396 20,455 1.3 4.6 3.6 22,178 22,956 18,339 85,801 74,466 15.2

 Fabricated metal products:

 Shipments................................ 32,387 31,911 31,973 1.5 -0.2 0.7 32,309 32,928 28,521 125,119 112,975 10.7

 New Orders.............................. 33,381 32,717 32,344 2.0 1.2 0.4 34,054 34,727 29,666 131,447 117,693 11.7

 Machinery:

 Shipments................................ 32,058 31,994 32,518 0.2 -1.6 1.8 32,351 35,485 29,715 127,065 117,038 8.6

 New Orders.............................. 31,632 31,899 32,939 -0.8 -3.2 3.3 32,285 35,354 31,102 130,228 122,134 6.6

 Computers and electronic products4

:

 Shipments................................ 26,305 26,049 26,275 1.0 -0.9 -0.3 24,129 28,049 22,577 98,967 94,032 5.2

 New Orders.............................. 22,762 22,509 22,187 1.1 1.5 -1.1 21,007 25,805 19,279 86,241 80,991 6.5

 Computers and related products:

 Shipments................................ 1,808 1,631 1,732 10.9 -5.8 -5.9 1,595 1,861 1,675 6,200 7,234 -14.3

 New Orders.............................. 1,812 1,721 1,753 5.3 -1.8 -5.1 1,599 1,951 1,694 6,322 7,316 -13.6

 Communications equipment:

 Shipments................................ 3,362 3,357 3,319 0.1 1.1 -2.1 2,948 3,933 2,634 12,288 11,124 10.5

 New Orders.............................. 3,410 3,356 3,339 1.6 0.5 -4.6 3,195 4,053 3,005 13,358 12,813 4.3

 Electrical equipment, appliances, 

 and components: 

 Shipments................................ 11,468 11,195 11,084 2.4 1.0 1.2 11,258 11,805 10,166 43,085 40,660 6.0

 New Orders.............................. 11,568 11,272 11,004 2.6 2.4 2.6 11,373 11,999 10,088 43,860 41,816 4.9

 Transportation equipment: 

 Shipments................................ 82,821 84,612 82,558 -2.1 2.5 0.3 80,859 95,031 74,178 327,219 308,584 6.0

 New Orders.............................. 87,058 92,705 86,731 -6.1 6.9 10.8 81,734 105,826 72,523 335,369 296,685 13.0

 Motor vehicles and parts:

 Shipments................................ 58,294 57,087 56,817 2.1 0.5 1.3 58,901 63,039 52,122 230,622 215,162 7.2

 New Orders.............................. 58,415 57,379 57,022 1.8 0.6 1.7 58,513 63,360 52,006 231,237 216,226 6.9

 Nondefense aircraft and parts:

 Shipments................................ 10,880 14,924 12,814 -27.1 16.5 0.8 9,203 17,394 10,604 46,685 46,494 0.4

 New Orders.............................. 16,228 22,842 14,211 -29.0 60.7 14.5 11,494 26,360 7,410 55,207 36,538 51.1

 Defense aircraft and parts:

 Shipments................................ 4,391 4,180 4,562 5.0 -8.4 -0.2 3,651 5,035 3,539 16,053 15,529 3.4

 New Orders.............................. 3,849 3,580 3,881 7.5 -7.8 43.0 3,412 4,746 5,464 13,487 18,748 -28.1

 All other durable goods: 

 Shipments................................ 40,473 40,328 40,414 0.4 -0.2 0.5 40,665 41,139 38,372 154,945 148,293 4.5

 New Orders.............................. 40,419 40,180 40,379 0.6 -0.5 0.4 40,884 41,490 38,633 155,884 149,902 4.0

 Capital goods3

:

 Shipments................................ 86,098 88,333 86,524 -2.5 2.1 0.1 81,883 98,017 75,383 332,986 307,094 8.4

 New Orders.............................. 89,548 94,937 90,972 -5.7 4.4 9.6 83,705 108,709 75,516 346,556 304,147 13.9

 Nondefense capital goods:

 Shipments................................ 74,077 77,681 75,648 -4.6 2.7 1.0 70,808 85,917 66,107 290,054 268,846 7.9

 New Orders.............................. 78,589 84,304 77,475 -6.8 8.8 3.5 73,685 94,243 65,753 303,546 270,473 12.2

 Excluding aircraft:

 Shipments........................... 67,309 66,755 67,199 0.8 -0.7 1.0 65,406 73,227 59,491 260,008 239,796 8.4

 New Orders.......................... 67,275 66,577 67,149 1.0 -0.9 1.6 66,075 74,067 61,376 265,706 249,150 6.6

 Defense capital goods:

 Shipments................................ 12,021 10,652 10,876 12.9 -2.1 -5.2 11,075 12,100 9,276 42,932 38,248 12.2

 New Orders.............................. 10,959 10,633 13,497 3.1 -21.2 66.3 10,020 14,466 9,763 43,010 33,674 27.7

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. 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (M3) Survey, April Advance Report, May 25, 2018. Information on data sources and methodology can be found on our website at 

<www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/how_the_data_are_collected/index.html>. 
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 2018/

2018 2 2018 r 2018 Apr 2 Mar r Feb 2018 2 2018 r 2017 2017

DURABLE GOODS

 Total: 

 Unfilled Orders4......................... 1,153,353 1,147,820 1,138,190 0.5 0.8 0.4 1,161,336 1,157,350 1,120,003 3.7

 Total Inventories....................... 401,688 400,521 399,816 0.3 0.2 0.5 403,793 399,946 384,975 4.9

 Excluding transportation:

 Unfilled Orders4

......................... 357,181 355,885 354,348 0.4 0.4 0.2 363,347 360,236 346,919 4.7

 Total Inventories....................... 273,186 272,415 271,105 0.3 0.5 0.5 274,372 271,833 259,508 5.7

 Excluding defense:

 Unfilled Orders4

........................... 975,462 968,810 959,077 0.7 1.0 0.3 981,495 976,610 939,705 4.4

 Total Inventories....................... 375,035 373,571 372,911 0.4 0.2 0.6 377,087 373,019 358,553 5.2

 Manufacturing with unfilled orders:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 1,153,353 1,147,820 1,138,190 0.5 0.8 0.4 1,161,336 1,157,350 1,120,003 3.7

 Total Inventories....................... 326,866 325,835 325,277 0.3 0.2 0.5 328,649 324,978 313,005 5.0

 Primary metals:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 29,589 29,136 28,532 1.6 2.1 0.8 30,831 30,239 27,579 11.8

 Total Inventories....................... 34,191 34,053 33,725 0.4 1.0 0.3 34,173 33,837 31,804 7.4

 Fabricated metal products:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 82,364 81,370 80,564 1.2 1.0 0.5 83,702 81,957 76,415 9.5

 Total Inventories....................... 51,997 51,589 51,228 0.8 0.7 0.6 52,342 51,735 48,283 8.4

 Machinery: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 103,114 103,540 103,635 -0.4 -0.1 0.4 104,500 104,566 101,003 3.5

 Total Inventories....................... 67,835 67,781 67,310 0.1 0.7 0.6 68,052 67,661 64,715 5.2

 Computers and electronic products4

:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 113,816 113,587 113,294 0.2 0.3 0.0 115,086 114,580 112,436 2.4

 Total Inventories....................... 43,246 43,198 43,269 0.1 -0.2 0.8 43,524 42,643 41,831 4.0

 Computers and related products:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 2,000 1,996 1,906 0.2 4.7 1.1 2,000 1,996 1,661 20.4

 Total Inventories....................... 3,644 3,676 3,712 -0.9 -1.0 -0.2 3,610 3,496 3,679 -1.9

 Communications equipment:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 25,599 25,551 25,552 0.2 0.0 0.1 26,129 25,882 24,089 8.5

 Total Inventories....................... 5,366 5,268 5,298 1.9 -0.6 0.2 5,342 5,175 5,251 1.7

 Electrical equipment, appliances, 

 and components: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 19,313 19,213 19,136 0.5 0.4 -0.4 19,807 19,692 19,804 0.0

 Total Inventories....................... 18,411 18,390 18,336 0.1 0.3 0.4 18,687 18,409 17,492 6.8

 Transportation equipment: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 796,172 791,935 783,842 0.5 1.0 0.5 797,989 797,114 773,084 3.2

 Total Inventories....................... 128,502 128,106 128,711 0.3 -0.5 0.6 129,421 128,113 125,467 3.2

 Motor vehicles and parts:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 26,814 26,693 26,401 0.5 1.1 0.8 27,122 27,510 25,546 6.2

 Total Inventories....................... 35,548 35,658 35,530 -0.3 0.4 0.4 35,571 35,623 33,175 7.2

 Nondefense Aircraft and parts:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 601,703 596,355 588,437 0.9 1.3 0.2 601,632 599,341 577,756 4.1

 Total Inventories....................... 65,639 64,914 65,673 1.1 -1.2 0.9 66,557 65,099 65,146 2.2

 Defense Aircraft and parts: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 69,107 69,649 70,249 -0.8 -0.9 -1.0 69,928 70,167 75,015 -6.8

 Total Inventories....................... 12,734 12,910 12,902 -1.4 0.1 0.1 12,748 12,818 12,655 0.7

 All other durable goods: 

 Unfilled Orders......................... 8,985 9,039 9,187 -0.6 -1.6 -0.4 9,421 9,202 9,682 -2.7

 Total Inventories....................... 57,506 57,404 57,237 0.2 0.3 0.3 57,594 57,548 55,383 4.0

 Capital goods3

:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 858,507 855,057 848,453 0.4 0.8 0.5 862,663 860,841 835,767 3.2

 Total Inventories....................... 198,391 197,919 198,122 0.2 -0.1 0.7 199,450 197,540 191,948 3.9

 Nondefense capital goods:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 713,853 709,341 702,718 0.6 0.9 0.3 716,304 713,427 691,899 3.5

 Total Inventories....................... 176,143 175,347 175,583 0.5 -0.1 0.7 177,163 174,899 170,181 4.1

 Excluding aircraft: 

 Unfilled Orders.................... 217,319 217,353 217,531 0.0 -0.1 0.0 220,188 219,519 216,938 1.5

 Total Inventories................... 122,525 122,391 121,903 0.1 0.4 0.5 122,747 121,542 117,415 4.5

 Defense capital goods:

 Unfilled Orders......................... 144,654 145,716 145,735 -0.7 0.0 1.8 146,359 147,414 143,868 1.7

 Total Inventories....................... 22,248 22,572 22,539 -1.4 0.1 0.1 22,287 22,641 21,767 2.4

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. 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (M3) Survey, April Advance Report, May 25, 2018. Information on data sources and methodology can be found on 

our website at <www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/how_the_data_are_collected/index.html>.