Posted by meb at December 6th, 2008

The total amount of Turkish manufacturing capacity utilized in November fell by a record amount — 9.7 percent — compared to the same month last year, according to recently released figures.

The latest “Trends in the Manufacturing Sector” survey, conducted by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), was released yesterday, indicating that just 72.9 percent of total industrial capacity is now used. The figures were derived from the provisional results of 4,862 industrial establishments.

TurkStat cited the main reason for businesses failing to operate at full capacity as decreasing demand in the domestic market due to the negative effects of the ongoing financial turmoil in global markets. In addition, a shortage of raw materials and high energy prices have led to a decline in the utilization of industrial capacity, noted TurkStat.

Meanwhile, production dropped by 3.6 percent in November compared to the previous month, and is expected to drop another 5.9 percent in December, indicating that the Turkish economy is now openly feeling the adverse affects of the financial crisis.

TurkStat also announced yesterday that Turkey’s industrial output dropped by 8.5 percent in October compared to the same month in 2007 in its monthly Industrial Production Index. The index shows that production fell 10.3 percent in the manufacturing sector and 1.5 percent in utilities in October compared with the same month last year. In the same period, production increased 15.4 percent in the mining sector, according to TurkStat.

Turkish industry, as well as other areas of the economy, is also experiencing the negative effects of the global financial turmoil. But the index wasn’t encouraging for the previous month, either. September saw a 5.5 percent fall in industrial output over the same month in 2007.

Compared with the first 10 months of last year, total industrial output increased only 1.4 percent during the same time period of this year, while the manufacturing sector increased 0.7 percent. During the same period, the mining sector increased 7.9 percent and utilities increased 5.4 percent.
source: Today’s Zaman

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