In the same month of 2008, the capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector was 75.3 percent. The public sector’s capacity utilization was 75.3 percent, while the private sector’s capacity utilization was 72.9 percent a year ago.
The Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) released the November capacity utilization figures on Thursday as part of its monthly tendency survey in the manufacturing industry, which included the survey results of 4,847 companies.
Classification of economic activities indicated the lowest capacity utilization rate in the manufacture of office and accounting information equipment. The production of coke and refined oil products followed with a capacity utilization rate of 60.5 percent.
In the manufacture of food products and beverages, the rate was 71.2 percent, while it was 73.9 percent for tobacco products. One of Turkey’s main industries, textile production, also enjoyed an above average capacity utilization, at 76 percent. Clothing manufacturing fared even better with 78.4 percent.
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The primary reason companies were unable to work at full capacity in November was the lack of sufficient demand, the survey showed. Some 55.4 percent of the companies that responded to TurkStat’s questionnaire complained about low domestic demand, whereas 29.7 percent mentioned falling demand in the foreign markets. Financial hurdles were mentioned by 3.4 percent of respondents, and 3.7 percent said the shortage of raw materials for domestic goods was the reason companies were unable to operate at full capacity. Approximately 1.7 percent said the lack of raw materials for imported goods caused the capacity utilization decline, and only 1.1 percent mentioned problems stemming from the labor force.
Meanwhile, the same survey has shown that production quantities were down 1.9 percent in November over the same month a year ago. Companies say they expect this quantity to increase by 0.5 percent in December. Their sales dropped 0.6 percent in November, the companies participating in the survey noted, adding that they estimate sales to remain the same in December.
