Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of its 64th round of the quarterly order books, inventories and capacity utilisation survey (OBICUS), which was conducted during Q4:2023-24 and covered 813 manufacturing companies. The survey¹ provides a snapshot of demand conditions in India’s manufacturing sector during October-December 2023.

Highlights:

• At the aggregate level, the capacity utilisation (CU) in the manufacturing sector increased to 74.7 per cent in Q3:2023-24 from 74.0 per cent in the previous quarter (Chart 1 and Table 1). The seasonally adjusted CU increased sequentially (q-o-q) by 10 basis points to 74.6 per cent.   

• The value of new orders received by the responding companies during Q3:2023-24 remained close to that in the previous quarter. On an annual (y-o-y) basis, however, the value of new orders increased by nearly 10 per cent (Chart 2 and Table 2A).

• The finished goods inventory (FGI) to sales ratio increased marginally in Q3:2023-24 from its level in the previous quarter while the raw material inventory² (RMI) to sales ratio remained stable (Chart 3 and Table 3A).

Note-Please see the excel file for time series data.

ANNEX 1: Data Tables

*: Index of Industrial Production (Base: 2011-12)

#: Growth rates are calculated using three rounds common set of companies, namely, companies responded in the current quarter, one quarter ago and the same quarter a year ago.
**: Not seasonally adjusted.

##: Weighted average of industry level ratios using GVA as weights

Note: The computations of order book growths and inventory to sales ratios are based on methodology given in the RBI press release dated October 8, 2021 (link: https://website.rbi.org.in/en/web/rbi/-/publications/obicus-survey-on-the-manufacturing-sector-for-q1-2021-22-20650) and not on the basis of averages given in the above tables. Please also see footnote 2 on direct estimation of RMI since 53rd round of the survey.