Turkish manufacturing capacity utilization rate down in January

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The capacity utilization rate of the Turkish manufacturing sector was at 76.4% in January, down 0.9 percentage points from the previous month.

Official Central Bank figures on Thursday said the highest capacity utilization in the month was in investment goods at 75.7%, and the lowest was in durable consumer goods at 72%.

Broken down by sector, the highest capacity usage was in the manufacture of paper products, at 84.4%, while the lowest, 62.2%, was in leather products.

Capacity utilization rate figures are based on responses to a business tendency survey of local units operating in the manufacturing industry.

The Turkish Central Bank said 1,740 companies responded to the survey this month, and the data does not reflect the bank's views or predictions.