A guest post by AAM intern Whitney Stack:

Although the federal reserve announced that manufacturing output increased 1.1 percent in July – which is a significant improvement over the .5 percent decline in June – the number may be Although the federal reserve announced that manufacturing output increased 1.1 percent in July – which is a significant improvement over the .5 percent decline in June – the number may be deceptively positive. A 9.9% gain in the output of motor vehicles and parts accounted for a significant portion of the July increase, but, as this article by Mike Mandel on the blog, Manufacturing, points out:

“Output measures the number of motor vehicles and parts leaving domestic factories. But it doesn’t take into account any increase in offshoring–that is, use of imported parts.”

Mandel points out that those imports of motor vehicle “parts, engines, bodies and chassis” rose by 79% over the past year. As a result, he explains, “The implication is that there are a lot more imported parts and engines going into ‘American-built’ cars and trucks.” ##