Live · Manufacturing pulse

The U.S. manufacturing pulse.

A live dashboard of U.S. manufacturing: input costs, factory demand and capacity, interest rates, and trade flows, from EIA, BLS, Census, and the Fed.

Input costs right now

  • Industrial electricity: 8.71 cents per kWh, U.S. average (EIA, May 2026).
  • Industrial natural gas: 4.27 per Mcf (EIA, May 2026).
  • On-highway diesel: $5.26 per gallon (EIA, week of 2026-08-10).
  • WTI crude: $84.77 per barrel (EIA, 2026-08-11).
  • Steel mill products PPI: 374.203, up 22.5% year over year (BLS, Jul 2026).
  • Aluminum mill shapes PPI: 407.62, up 30.2% year over year (BLS, Jul 2026).
  • Copper and brass PPI: 542.853, up 52.8% year over year (BLS, Jul 2026).
  • Plastic resins PPI: 292.875, up 10.7% year over year (BLS, Jul 2026).

Demand and factory activity

  • U.S. manufacturing runs at 75.6% of capacity (Federal Reserve, Jun 2026).
  • Industrial production index: 98.6995, up 1.1% year over year (Federal Reserve, Jun 2026).
  • New factory orders: $657B per month, up 7.4% year over year (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Truck tonnage index: 114.3, up 0.8% year over year (ATA via FRED, May 2026).
  • Housing starts: 1,427k annual rate, up 3.5% year over year (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Light vehicle sales: 16.8 million annual rate, down 1.3% year over year (BEA, Jul 2026).
  • Manufacturing job openings: 481k nationally (BLS JOLTS, Jun 2026).
  • Manufacturing hourly earnings: $30.35 (BLS, Jul 2026).

The cost of money and sourcing

  • Prime lending rate: 6.75% (Federal Reserve, 2026-08-13).
  • Effective fed funds rate: 3.63% (Federal Reserve, 2026-08-13).
  • 10-year Treasury yield: 4.63% (Federal Reserve, 2026-08-13).
  • Chinese yuan: 6.7474 per USD (Federal Reserve H.10, 2026-08-07).
  • Mexican peso: 17.1357 per USD (Federal Reserve H.10, 2026-08-07).
  • Euro: 1.1559 per USD (Federal Reserve H.10, 2026-08-07).

Trade flows this month

  • Iron and steel: $2.2B imported, $1.8B exported, a $0.4B trade deficit (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Aluminum: $3.0B imported, $1.6B exported, a $1.4B trade deficit (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Copper: $2.4B imported, $1.4B exported, a $0.9B trade deficit (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Machinery and mechanical appliances: $78.4B imported, $25.7B exported, a $52.6B trade deficit (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Electrical machinery and equipment: $55.9B imported, $22.0B exported, a $33.9B trade deficit (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Vehicles: $28.6B imported, $12.0B exported, a $16.6B trade deficit (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Plastics: $6.4B imported, $7.4B exported, a $1.0B trade surplus (Census, Jun 2026).
  • Rubber: $2.9B imported, $1.3B exported, a $1.6B trade deficit (Census, Jun 2026).

Sources and update cadence

  • Every number comes directly from the EIA, BLS, Census Bureau, Federal Reserve, or IMF and is republished only when a value actually changes.
  • Each metric with history has its own archived series page, and the matching calculators preload these benchmarks next to their inputs.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.