After-Tax Profit Drops 4.9% in First Quarter

Manufacturers’ after-tax profits totaled $28.6 billion in the first quarter of the year, down $1.5 billion, or 4.9%, from the final quarter of 1989, the Commerce Department said today.

After-tax profits averaged 4.2 cents on the dollar of sales in the first three months of the year, a decline of 0.2 cents from the previous three months, the department’s Census Bureau said.

Sales in January, February and March totaled $683.5 billion, a gain of $2.9 billion or 0.4% from October, November and December, the department said in its quarterly report.

The figures were adjusted to reflect seasonal factors.

Food and printing businesses contributed to a significant decline in first-quarter profits for the makers of non-durable goods, the Commerce Department said. Textiles declined too.

“Petroleum was also down,” the government report said. “Fourth-quarter profits benefited from downward adjustments to federal tax provisions not applicable to this quarter.”

But quarterly after-tax profits were on the rise for the makers of rubber products, paper and chemicals, the department said.

In the category of durable goods--expensive items made to last three or more years, from aircraft to washing machines--there were large increases in the profits of manufacturers of transportation equipment, primary metals and fabricated metals.

But quarterly after-tax profits for stone, clay and glass businesses declined sharply, as did profits for makers of electrical machinery and non-electrical machinery, the Commerce Department said.