US factory orders post biggest gain in 11 months in April

[WASHINGTON] New orders for US factory goods posted their biggest increase in nearly a year in April, amid strong demand for commercial aircraft and a range of other goods.

Factory orders surged 4.8 per cent, the largest rise since May 2025, after an upwardly revised 1.8 per cent advance in March, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Wednesday (Jun 3).

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast orders increasing 4.6 per cent, after a previously reported 1.5 per cent rise in March.

Orders increased 6 per cent year on year in April. Manufacturing, which accounts for 9.4 per cent of the economy, is being underpinned by an artificial intelligence-spending boom, though the US-Israeli war with Iran poses a downside risk.

The three-month conflict has severely disrupted the shipping of commodities, and raised the prices of goods such as energy, aluminum and fertilisers.

An Institute for Supply Management survey on Monday showed that supplier delivery performance slowed for a sixth consecutive month in May, keeping prices for inputs elevated.

Commercial aircraft orders soared 165.9 per cent in April, after declining 23 per cent in March. Boeing reported on its website that it received 136 orders in April, most of them for more expensive models, against 33 orders in March.

Orders for primary metals increased 2 per cent, and bookings for fabricated metal products jumped 3.5 per cent. Orders for machinery rose 0.7 per cent. Electrical equipment, appliances and components orders climbed 0.5 per cent.

There were also increases in orders for motor vehicle bodies, parts and trailers. But orders for computers and electronic products dropped 0.7 per cent, with computers falling 2.5 per cent.

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The Census Bureau also reported that orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft, which are seen as a measure of business spending plans on equipment, declined 1 per cent in April instead of 1.1 per cent as estimated last week.

Shipments of these core capital goods rose 0.4 per cent as previously reported. REUTERS