Manufacturing activity gathers pace

ISTANBUL

The Turkish manufacturing sector has continued to show signs of recovery in April following February’s earthquake, with output, new orders and exports all increasing for the second month running, showed a survey conducted jointly by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) and S&P Global.

The headline Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) posted 51.5 in April, up from 50.9 in March and above the 50 no-change mark for the fourth month running.

Any figure greater than 50 indicates overall improvement of the sector.

Moreover, the rate of improvement in the health of the sector was the most pronounced since December 2021, the survey said.

Firms also expanded their purchasing activity, while employment was broadly unchanged as retirements limited the ability of companies to expand their workforce numbers.

Stronger demand was reported by a number of firms in April, leading to increases in new orders and output. Some respondents also indicated that workloads had risen due to an ongoing recovery from February’s earthquake.

Moreover, total new business, new export orders and output all increased at sharper rates than in March. The rise in production was the most pronounced in 20 months.

Input prices continued to rise sharply in April amid higher raw material costs and currency weakness, according to the survey.

“That said, the rate of inflation eased to the slowest in the year-to-date. In some cases, firms mentioned lower energy prices. Similarly, output prices rose at the softest rate since August 2022.”