Sales at U.S. wholesalers rose in February for the first time in eight months, contributing to a record drop in inventories that indicates distributors are well on the way to eliminating the glut in stockpiles. Sales rose 0.6 percent, the first increase since June, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The 1.5 percent decrease in the value of stockpiles was the biggest since records started in 1992. At the current sales pace, it would take 1.31 months for distributors to deplete the amount of goods on hand, the lowest since November, compared with 1.34 months in January. Weak demand in the U.S. and abroad means factories will scale back production, hurting economic growth. “Wholesalers are drawing down their inventory levels because their shipments to retailers have collapsed,” Steven Wood, president of Insight Economics LLC in Danville, California, said before the report. “As a result, they have sharply reduced their orders from manufacturers, both domestically and internationally.” Inventories at wholesalers were forecast to drop 0.7 percent after an initially reported 0.9 percent decrease in January, according to the median estimate of 34 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Projections ranged from a decline of 0.7 percent to a 0.5 percent gain. Wholesalers make up about 25 percent of all business stockpiles. Factory inventories, which account for about a third of the total, dropped 1.2 percent in February, Commerce reported on April 2. Retail stockpiles, which make up the rest, will be included in the April 14 business inventories report.

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