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).

• 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).

• 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).

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

ANNEX 1: Data Tables

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.