Computers and electronics orders had their best month in 25 years in March, Reuters reported Monday (May 4).
This category’s orders rose 3.6% compared to February and hit $29.6 billion, which was the highest level since March 2001, according to the report.
The report attributed the rise to surging demand for these products as companies invest in artificial intelligence.
This achievement for computers and electronics products happened during a month in which new orders for manufactured goods increased 1.5% to reach $630.4 billion, the Census Bureau said in a Monday press release.
That rate of growth was up from the 0.3% increase in new orders seen in February.
The Census Bureau also reported Monday that during March, shipments increased 1.4% to $633.9 billion, unfilled orders increased 0.1% to $1,540.9 billion, and the unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio declined to 6.88 compared to February’s 6.92.
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The bureau said that new orders for manufactured goods were up in four of the last five months and that shipments were up in five of the last six months.
Inventories increased 0.6% to $956.3 billion in March, while the inventories-to-shipments ratio slid to 1.51 compared to February’s 1.52, according to the Census Bureau.
According to the Reuters report, the rate of increase in new orders for factory goods was greater than expected by economists, who had predicted a rise of 0.5%.
Orders for nondurable goods were up 2.1% in March, reaching their highest level since October 2022, the Reuters report said, while those for durable goods rose 0.8%.
The report said manufacturing accounts for 10.1% of the U.S. economy.
The Census Bureau reported Wednesday (April 29) that new orders for nondefense capital goods, excluding aircraft — also known as core capital goods — rose 3.3% in March. That figure was up from the 1.6% increase seen in February.
Reuters reported at the time that the increase was driven by the boom in investments in AI and the data centers that support the technology.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that March’s rise in business spending on equipment continued a year of “solid” capital investments fueled by businesses’ spending on AI.
