Turkish manufacturing capacity utilization rate improved slightly in March

By Gokhan Ergocun

The capacity utilization rate of the Turkish manufacturing sector was at 77.2% in March, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous month.

Official Central Bank figures on Friday said the utilization in the month was 76.5% both in investment goods and intermediate goods and was 73.3% in durable consumer goods.

Broken down by sector, the highest capacity usage was in the manufacture of paper products at 85%, while the lowest, 62.4%, 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 1,731 companies responded to the survey this month, and the data does not reflect the bank's views or predictions.