Textile mills experienced growth in new orders and production during the month of October.

The Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), released Monday, showed that overall, American manufacturing activity remained in expansion territory last month. Registering at 55.5 percent in October—1 percentage point over September’s figure—the data shows the economy expanded for the 24th consecutive month in a row. A Manufacturing PMI above 47.5 percent indicates expansion.

“Of the five subindexes that make up the PMI, four (New Orders, Production, Supplier Deliveries and Inventories) grew faster than the previous month, while Employment growth slowed down by 0.3 percentage point,” wrote Susan Spence, MBA and chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee.

New orders were up for the 10th month in a row, hitting 55.5 percent in October (compared to 55.3 percent in September). The Production Index hit 59 percent, 2.3 percent higher than September—and the highest rate recorded since November 2021. The Prices Index continued to increase, reaching 75.2 percent (a 2.7 percentage point decrease from September), while order backlogs registered 54.6 percent, down 1.8 percent from the month prior.

Despite the mostly positive growth, general sentiment worsened for the third consecutive month, with 34 percent of comments in the positive range and 66 percent registering negative. Those with a pessimistic outlook cited pricing volatility (62 percent), longer lead times (41 percent), tariffs (25 percent) and the Iran war (21 percent), with most respondents mentioning multiple of these factors.

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