CHICAGO—This winter's extremely cold weather pushed down the nation's GDP in the first quarter, and worries over the financial troubles of the euro may have clouded some economic forecasts, but through it all the US industrial economy kept chugging along, and seems set to far surpass last year's robust level of absorption.

According to a just-published analysis of the second quarter by DTZ, industrial users were responsible for 46.1 million square feet of net absorption, bringing the mid-year total to 86.5 million square feet, a 22% increase over where the market was last year at this time. Furthermore, US industrial vacancy now stands at just 7.3%, the lowest rate since before the recession. DTZ studied 60 markets for its analysis and found 19 with vacancy rates below 5%.

Much of the strength of the modern industrial economy comes from the desire of consumers for ever-quicker deliveries and the subsequent expansion of the supply chain system. And DTZ researchers say that in May consumers increased their spending by 3.4%, the biggest jump since October 2006, helping to further boost the supply chain infrastructure.