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Date : Aug 08, 2024
Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey on the Manufacturing sector for Q4:2023-24

Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of its 65th round of the quarterly order books, inventories and capacity utilisation survey (OBICUS), which was conducted during Q1:2024-25 and covered 900 manufacturing companies. The survey1 provides a snapshot of demand conditions in India’s manufacturing sector during January-March 2024.

Highlights:

  • At the aggregate level, capacity utilisation (CU) in the manufacturing sector increased to 76.8 per cent in Q4:2023-24 from 74.7 per cent in the previous quarter. Seasonally Adjusted CU (CU-SA), however, remained stable at 74.6 per cent in Q4:2023-24 (Chart 1 and Table 1).
Chart 1: Capacity Utilisation (CU) and Seasonally Adjusted CU
  • New orders received by the responding companies during Q4:2023-24 increased on both sequential (q-o-q) and annual (y-o-y) basis though the annual growth was a shade lower than that recorded in the previous quarter (Chart 2 and Table 2A).
Chart 2: Growth in New Orders
  • Both the finished goods inventory (FGI) to sales ratio and the raw material inventory2 (RMI) to sales ratio remained close to their levels in the previous quarter (Chart 3 and Table 3A).
Chart 3: Inventories to Sales Ratios

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


ANNEX 1: Data Tables

Table 1: Capacity Utilisation
Quarter Number of responding companies Capacity Utilisation Seasonally Adjusted Capacity Utilisation
Q4:2022-23 705 76.3 74.1
Q1:2023-24 665 73.6 75.4
Q2:2023-24 752 74.0 74.5
Q3:2023-24 761 74.7 74.6
Q4:2023-24 832 76.8 74.6
Note: The Seasonally Adjusted Capacity Utilisation is calculated using X13-ARIMA-SEATS (Signal Extraction in ARIMA Time Series) taking the Covid-19 lockdown quarter Q1:2020-21 as an additive outlier.

Table 2A: Order Books Growth
Quarter Number of companies Q-o-Q Growth # (per cent) Y-o-Y Growth # (per cent)
Backlog Orders New Order Book Pending Orders Backlog Orders New Order Book Pending Orders
Q4:2022-23 261 3.9 7.4 2.9 15.8 6.0 15.3
Q1:2023-24 244 -5.2 -1.3 -4.5 22.7 1.5 9.3
Q2:2023-24 245 3.1 3.5 5.6 24.1 7.3 15.7
Q3:2023-24 233 4.7 -0.4 4.1 13.7 10.1 19.0
Q4:2023-24 224 3.4 10.0 0.2 18.9 6.8 10.4
#: Growth rates are calculated using common set of companies responding in three survey rounds, namely the current quarter, one quarter ago and the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Table 2B: Average Size of Order Books
Quarter Number of companies Average Amount (₹ crore)
Backlog Orders New Order Book Pending Orders
Q4:2022-23 261 215.6 225.4 221.9
Q1:2023-24 244 212.0 236.2 201.2
Q2:2023-24 245 227.7 248.6 240.4
Q3:2023-24 233 228.6 252.1 238.0
Q4:2023-24 224 221.6 267.2 222.2

Table 3A: Inventory to Sales Ratios
Quarter Number of Companies Ratio (per cent) ##
Total Inventory / Sales Finished Goods Inventory / Sales Raw Material Inventory / Sales
Q4:2022-23 658 64.1 23.2 25.3
Q1:2023-24 622 63.0 24.8 24.4
Q2:2023-24 688 65.9 24.6 24.4
Q3:2023-24 714 67.7 26.8 24.8
Q4:2023-24 803 65.4 26.6 24.3
##: Weighted average of industry level ratios using Gross Value Added as weights.

Table 3B: Average Sales and Inventories
Quarter Number of Companies Average Amount (₹ crore)
Sales Total Inventory Finished Goods Inventory Work in progress Inventory Raw Material Inventory
Q4:2022-23 658 1172.2 546.6 225.4 62.7 206.2
Q1:2023-24 622 1163.1 534.3 226.9 62.8 195.7
Q2:2023-24 688 1091.7 608.1 226.7 120.4 203.8
Q3:2023-24 714 1069.6 581.4 226.0 110.3 187.5
Q4:2023-24 803 1185.6 585.0 228.8 104.9 197.8

Note: The methodology for computations of order book growth and inventory to sales ratios is given in the RBI press release dated October 8, 2021 (link: https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=20650). Please also see footnote 2 on direct estimation of RMI since 53rd round of the survey.


1 The survey responses are voluntary, and the results reflect the views of the respondents, which are not necessarily shared by the Reserve Bank. Results of the previous survey round were released on the Bank’s website on April 05, 2024.

2 The estimates of raw materials inventory (including stores and spares, loose tools, stock-in-trade and other inventories) were arrived at by netting out finished goods inventory and work-in-progress inventory from total inventory. Since the 53rd round of the survey (i.e., Q4:2020−21), however, direct data on raw material inventory (excluding stores and spares, loose tools, stock-in-trade and other inventories) are also being collected from survey respondents, in parallel. Estimates of raw materials inventory based on the additional reporting are presented here.


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