Shipments for June 2011 were $6.9 billion, down -$117 million (-1.7%) compared to June 2010. On an inflation-adjusted basis, they were down -$366 million (-5.0%). This was the lowest June shipments since June 2009, when they were $6.849 billion, but those 2009 shipments were actually higher after inflation adjustment. Before that, the last June that was lower than these data were in June 1994, when shipments were $6.8 billion, but in today's dollars would be equivalent to $10.9 billion. For the first half of the year, shipments are +0.4% on a current dollar basis, but -2.4% on an inflation-adjusted basis. The details of these data, and those of Canada, are available to WhatTheyThink premium subscribers at this page. We have updated our 2011 forecasts, and those data are in the spreadsheet. The chart below shows the last few years of monthly inflation-adjusted data and the forecast for the balance of 2011. (Click chart to enlarge)