Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of the 48th round of the Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) for the quarter October-December 2019 covering 704 manufacturing companies. The survey provides a snapshot of demand conditions in India’s manufacturing sector1. Highlights: 1) Capacity Utilisation (CU): At the aggregate level, CU declined to 68.6 per cent in Q3:2019-20 from 69.1 percent in the previous quarter. The CU broadly tracks the de-trended index of industrial production (IIP) (Chart 1). Seasonally adjusted CU also declined by 1.8 percentage points to 68.2 per cent in Q3:2019-20. 2) Order Books: Orders received in Q3:2019-20 were lower compared with previous quarter as well as with the level a year ago (Chart 2). 3) Finished Goods Inventory (FGI) to Sales Ratio: The FGI to sales ratio declined marginally in Q3:2019-20, while sales fell at faster pace than FGI (Chart 3). 4) Raw Material Inventory (RMI) to Sales Ratio: The rise in RMI to sales ratio was on account of increase in inventories and moderation in sales (Chart 3). Historical time series have been made available in excel format. ANNEX 1: Data Tables Table 1.1: IIP*-Manufacturing and Capacity Utilisation (CU) | Quarter | Number of responding companies | Capacity Utilisation | IIP-Manufacturing (Quarterly Average) | De-trended Quarterly IIP-Manufacturing | Q3: 2018-19 | 860 | 75.9 | 132.2 | 1.99 | Q4: 2018-19 | 802 | 76.1 | 136.5 | 5.31 | Q1:2019-20 | 781 | 73.6 | 130.3 | -1.79 | Q2:2019-20 | 819 | 69.1 | 129.4 | -3.71 | Q3:2019-20 | 700 | 68.6 | 130.4 | -3.60 | *: Index of Industrial Production (Base: 2011-12) | Table 1.2: Order Books (Q3:2018-19 to Q3:2019-20) (Based on common set of 115 companies in 9 quarters)** | Quarter | Amount (₹ Crores) | Q-o-Q Growth (%)*** | Y-o-Y Growth (%) | Average Backlog Orders | Average New Order Book | Average Pending Orders | Average Backlog Orders | Average New Order Book | Average Pending Orders | Average Backlog Orders | Average New Order Book | Average Pending Orders | Q3: 2018-19 | 115.1 | 150.0 | 113.9 | 8.8 | -7.8 | -1.0 | 13.2 | 0.5 | 3.8 | Q4: 2018-19 | 113.7 | 164.7 | 118.3 | -1.2 | 9.9 | 3.9 | 3.4 | 2.7 | 9.3 | Q1:2019-20 | 118.1 | 166.7 | 134.5 | 3.8 | 1.2 | 13.7 | 8.6 | 16.3 | 27.2 | Q2:2019-20 | 134.3 | 148.9 | 137.8 | 13.7 | -10.7 | 2.5 | 27.0 | -8.4 | 19.8 | Q3:2019-20 | 138.1 | 144.9 | 143.5 | 2.8 | -2.7 | 4.1 | 20.0 | -3.4 | 26.0 | **: As required for calculating growth rates in recent 5 quarters. ***: Not seasonally adjusted | Table 1.3: Average Sales and Inventories (Q3:2018-19 to Q3:2019-20) (Based on common set of 344 companies in 5 quarters) | Quarter | Amount (₹ Crores) | Ratio (per cent) | Average Sales | Average Total Inv | Average FG Inv | Average WiP Inv | Average RM Inv | Total Inv/Sales | FG Inv/Sales | RM Inv/Sales | Q3:2018-19 | 783.3 | 421.0 | 116.8 | 79.8 | 224.4 | 53.8 | 14.9 | 28.7 | Q4: 2018-19 | 753.9 | 348.6 | 110.8 | 53.4 | 184.5 | 46.2 | 14.7 | 24.5 | Q1:2019-20 | 709.8 | 359.9 | 111.0 | 57.3 | 191.6 | 50.7 | 15.6 | 27.0 | Q2: 2019-20 | 614.9 | 326.3 | 106.0 | 51.0 | 169.4 | 53.1 | 17.2 | 27.5 | Q3: 2019-20 | 598.8 | 332.2 | 100.7 | 52.0 | 179.5 | 55.5 | 16.8 | 30.0 | RM - Raw Material; WiP - Work in progress; FG - Finished Goods; Inv – Inventory. | |