According to data released by TurkStat on Tuesday, capacity utilization increased by 5 percent in December 2009 compared to the same month in 2008, experiencing the first year-on-year increase in 2009. Capacity utilization, which fell as low as 63.8 percent in the beginning of 2009, was 69.7 percent in December, a 5 percent increase from the 64.7 percent in December 2008.
The rate, however, decreased by 1 percent compared to November 2009. Nevertheless, this does not call into question whether the manufacturing industry is doing better compared to last year, as the rate decreased by 8.2 percent in the same period in 2008, signaling that seasonal effects may be at play.
The release, which is based on the results of a national survey of 4,835 firms in the manufacturing industry, noted that the biggest complaint from the industry was the shortage in domestic demand, with 53.9 percent of the firms surveyed saying it was the primary reason why they were not operating at full capacity.
A shortage in external demand was also a significant issue, with 31.2 percent of the firms stating that it was the primary reason for not running at full capacity.
The results of the survey revealed that, on average, production increased by 1.2 percent in December compared to the previous month and that a 0.1 percent growth rate is expected in January. Sales increased by 10.5 percent in December, but are expected to fall 5.9 percent in January. Some 36.3 percent of firms reported that production quantity had increased in December, while a similar amount (33.2 percent) reported that production quantity had decreased.
