Turkey’s capacity utilisation in September is 83.6%
Based on the data released by the State Institute of Statistics (SIS), Turkey's capacity utilisation rate (CUR) is recorded as 83.6% in September 2003, against 79.7% recorded in the same month of previous year and 79.3% recorded in the previous month. This rate is higher than the expectations of the market consensus of 80.5%. The increase of CUR over last year is 4.9%, while this increase is recorded in public sector as 3% and in private sector as 6%. According to analysts, the increase recorded over previous month is due to seasonal factors. The surveys show that in September stocks have declined, while domestic and foreign sales have increased. The 50% of the firms on which the survey is conducted, expected the domestic sales to rose, however exports of September have reached up to $4.2 billion, which the highest level recorded in 2003. The survey of CUR shows that production has increased in significant amounts in the third quarter. The industrial production increased by 11.7% and 10.3% in July and August respectively over last year. According to the survey conducted by State Institute of Statistics (SIS), insufficient demand in local market, with the rate of 64.5% has become the primary reason of the producers' not being able to operate with full capacity in September. Following reasons are stated as; with 16.1% insufficient demand in foreign market, with 2.8% inadequecy of raw materials for local goods.