Capacity usage in manufacturing improves

ANKARA

The seasonally adjusted capacity utilization rate (CUR) in the manufacturing sector has improved slightly from 76.3 percent in May to 76.6 percent in June, data from the Central Bank have shown.

The unadjusted CUR was 76.8 percent, up from the previous month’s 76 percent.

In the durable consumer goods sector, companies’ capacity usage rose from 72.4 percent in May to 74.6 percent in June, while the CUR in the non-durable goods manufacturing industry climbed from 73.3 percent to 73.9 percent.

Companies in the consumer goods sector worked at 74 percent capacity, rising from 73.2 percent in May.

The CUR in the intermediate goods sector also improved from 75.5 percent to 76.2 percent, while firms in the capital goods industry used 79.2 percent of their capacity in June, which was higher than the CUR of 78.4 percent recorded in May.

Separate data from the Central Bank on June 21 showed that the real sector confidence index was almost unchanged in June at 108.2 from 108.3 in May.

Any index figure above the 100 mark indicates optimism among companies.

At the start of the year, the gauge for business morale stood at 101.7.

The sub-index measuring companies’ assessment of the general business situation rose from 91.9 in May to 94.7 in June.

The Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) reported on June 21 that confidence in the services sector improved 0.6 percent month-on-month in June. The confidence index for the retail sector rose 0.9 percent but business morale in the construction sector fell 3.5 percent in June compared with May.