Employees have short meeting in the warehouse to check business inventory levels of goods. First in first out. (Photo: AdobeStock)
The U.S. Census Bureau report on wholesale trade statistics shows business inventories building in May under the pressure of solid sales.
Sales
Sales of merchant wholesalers in May — except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes — came in at $509.0 billion. That’s up 2.5% (±0.4) from the revised April level and 11.8% (±3.3) higher than in May 2017.
The percentage change from March 2018 to April 2018 was revised from the preliminary estimate of up 0.8% (±0.4) to up a much stronger 1.4% (±0.4).
Inventories
Total inventories of merchant wholesalers — except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations but not for price changes — came in at $633.5 billion at the end of May. That’s up 0.6% (±0.2) from the revised April level.
Total inventories were up 5.9% (±3.7) from the revised May 2017 level.
The percentage change from April 2018 to May 2018 was revised from the advance estimate of up 0.5% (±0.2) to up 0.6% (±0.2).
Inventories/Sales Ratio
The May inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, based on seasonally adjusted data, was 1.24. The May 2017 ratio was 1.31.
