After six consecutive monthly gains, U.S. industrial production fell by 0.9 percent in August as Hurricane Harvey hit Gulf Coast refining, chemicals, and plastics materials production, the Federal Reserve said on Friday. “Hurricane Harvey, which hit the Gulf Coast of Texas in late August, is estimated to have reduced the rate of change in total output by roughly 3/4 percentage point,” the Fed said, noting that “The manufacturing industries with the largest estimated storm-related effects were petroleum refining, organic chemicals, and plastics materials and resins.” Mining production went down by 0.8 percent in August, after Hurricane Harvey temporarily curtailed drilling, servicing, and extraction activity for oil and natural gas, the Fed added. When Harvey made landfall in Texas, 24.49 percent of the current oil production of 1,750,000 bpd in the Gulf of Mexico had been shut-in, which equates to 428,568 bpd, and 25.94 percent of the natural gas production […]