January sees further decline in capacity utilization rate
Posted by meb at February 11th, 2009
The rate of utilization of Turkey’s manufacturing industry capacity, weighted by production value, declined in January 2009 by 16.5 percentage points compared to the same month in 2008, according to recently released figures.
The latest “Tendencies in the Manufacturing Industry” survey, conducted by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), was released on Tuesday. The capacity utilization rate, following this drastic drop, now stands at 63.8 percent. These provisional figures were derived from the results of 4,744 industrial establishments. The primary reason TurkStat cited as to why businesses were failing to operate at full capacity was a shortage of demand in the domestic market, a direct result of the adverse impacts of the ongoing financial turbulence in global markets. In addition, “labor problems” and “shortages of raw materials and energy” were other factors leading to the decline, according to TurkStat.
Production quantity increased by 2 percent in January compared to the previous month, but is expected to decrease by 1.2 percent in February; furthermore, sales decreased by 4.9 percent in January. The price of raw materials increased by 0.3 percent in January on December 2008 prices, yet is expected to decrease by 0.2 percent in February. Turkey’s capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing industry has been falling significantly since October 2008. The rate declined in October by 6.4 percentage points compared to the same month in 2007, to 76.7 percent. The second hit came in November when the rate dropped 9.7 percentage points over October’s figures. Lastly in December, capacity utilization declined by 16.4 percentage points compared to the same month in 2007, a severe plunge.
These figures, pointing to a financial bottleneck, suggest that further problems will inevitably emerge in the coming months in the Turkish economy.
source: Today’s Zaman
Related posts: