Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of the 56th round of the quarterly Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS), which provides a snapshot of demand conditions in India’s manufacturing sector¹ during October-December 2021. The survey covered 800 manufacturing companies.

Highlights:

• The capacity utilisation (CU) for the manufacturing sector at the aggregate level picked-up further to 72.4 per cent in Q3:2021-22 from 68.3 per cent recorded in the previous quarter reflecting improved manufacturing activities (Chart 1 and Table 1).

• Manufacturing companies received more new orders during Q3:2021-22 as compared with that in the previous quarter as well as their level a year ago (Chart 2 and Table 2A).

• The finished goods inventory (FGI) to sales ratio marginally increased during Q3:2021-22 whereas raw material inventory (RMI) to sales ratio recorded a decline. Both these ratios were higher than their corresponding levels a year ago but underwent large swing resulting from high volatility in manufacturing activities during the pandemic (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 February 10, 2022.