Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of its 59th round of the quarterly Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) conducted during Q3:2022-23 covering 800 manufacturing companies. The survey¹ provides a snapshot of demand conditions in India’s manufacturing sector during July-September 2022.

Highlights:

• The aggregate level capacity utilisation (CU) for the manufacturing sector improved to 74.0 per cent in Q2:2022-23 from 72.4 per cent in the previous quarter. The seasonally adjusted CU for Q2:2022-23 also increased by 20 basis points (bps) to 74.5 per cent from its level in the previous quarter (Chart 1 and Table 1).

• New orders received by manufacturing companies during Q2:2022-23 were close to their level in the previous quarters but they were substantially higher than that in the corresponding quarter a year ago. (Chart 2 and Table 2A).

• Both raw material inventory (RMI) to sales and finished goods inventory (FGI) to sales ratios declined in Q2:2022-23 as compared to the previous quarter, which was commensurate with higher sales growth and similar level of new orders on sequential basis (Chart 3 and Table 3A).

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

ANNEX 1: Data Tables

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://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=20650) and not on the basis of averages given in the above tables.

¹ The survey responses are voluntary. Results of the previous survey round were released on the Bank’s website on September 30, 2022.