Census: July durable-goods new orders increased 1.1 percent to $339.3 billion

The U.S. Census Bureau released the Monthly Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers' Shipments Inventories and Orders on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, as CB 26-134. New orders for manufactured durable goods in July, up four of the last five months, increased $3.6 billion or 1.1 percent to $339.3 billion. This followed a 0.5 percent June increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.4 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 1.3 percent. Transportation equipment, up following two consecutive monthly decreases, led the increase, $2.6 billion or 2.3 percent to $116.2 billion.

The locked headline print is +$3.6 billion, or 1.1 percent, to $339.3 billion. Table 1, seasonally adjusted new orders in millions of dollars, prints 339,250 versus a revised 335,653 in June, a 1.1 percent change. Excluding transportation: 223,066 versus 222,095, 0.4 percent. Excluding defense: 312,692 versus 308,711, 1.3 percent. Transportation equipment: 116,184 versus 113,558, 2.3 percent. This page does not convert the table's million-dollar cells into the release-text billions, or the reverse.

Table 1 — Shipments and New Orders is labeled July 2026. Source line: “U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (M3) Survey, July Advance Report, August 26, 2026.” Estimates are in millions of dollars. June columns are marked “r,” with the footnote “Revised data due to late receipts and concurrent seasonal adjustment.” July columns carry footnote 2: “Based on advance sample.” Estimates are subject to survey error and revision and are not adjusted for price changes. Transportation equipment’s May-to-June change is −0.5 and April-to-May is −13.5, the table counterpart to “up following two consecutive monthly decreases.”

Inside transportation equipment, Table 1 prints seasonally adjusted new orders of 73,877 for motor vehicles and parts, a 0.9 June-to-July percent change, and 19,790 for nondefense aircraft and parts, versus 17,563 in June, a 12.7 percent change. Capital goods new orders, seasonally adjusted: 122,123, a 1.3 percent June-to-July change. Nondefense capital goods: 99,099, a 2.0 percent change. Nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft: 85,946, versus 85,771, a 0.2 percent change. Those capital-goods lines are table prints. They do not appear in the one-paragraph release text.

Table 1, seasonally adjusted shipments of durable goods: 334,722 in July versus 331,505 in June, a 1.0 percent change. Table 2 — Unfilled Orders and Inventory, same July Advance Report source line, seasonally adjusted: unfilled orders 1,599,893 versus 1,590,283, a 0.6 percent change; total inventories 604,357 versus 602,177, a 0.4 percent change. The notes say estimates of shipments and new orders are for the duration of the period; unfilled orders and total inventories are for the end of the period. The release text says transportation equipment “led the increase.” On Table 1, the transportation new-orders percent change of 2.3 is larger than the 1.1 headline change, the 0.4 change excluding transportation, and the 0.2 change in nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft. That is a comparison of printed percent changes. It is not a Census statement about core demand, and it is not a forecast.