Yahoo! News – Industrial Production Up 0.7 Pct in Feb.: “February’s gain in production was larger than Wall Street analysts’ expectations for a 0.4 percent increase. Capacity utilization, which measures how much productive capacity is in use, rose to 76.6 percent from 76.1 percent in January.
Factory production […] posted a 1.0 percent rise in February. Manufacturing capacity in use increased to 75.2 percent, its highest level since June 2001.
The report provided further evidence that the U.S. manufacturing sector — hard hit by the 2001 recession and by companies’ reluctance to invest in new equipment afterwards — continues to recover, though at an uneven pace. “