Consistent fall in manufacturing levels in India is likely to continue as nearly 20% respondents in a recent survey expect a fall in their production level in the fourth quarter of FY-13.
Even the number of respondent reporting higher levels of production is said to have dropped to 36% in Q4 when compared to 40% recorded in the previous quarters, according to Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (FICCI) survey on the manufacturing sector.
It states that there is some improvement seen in terms of order books of the manufacturers as over 39% respondents reported higher order books for January-March 2012-13 as compared to 33% in the same period last year. There were some signs of upturn in the industrial sector, particularly in sectors like leather, textiles, food products and cement. But sectors such as automotive and capital goods are expected to witness sluggish growth in the current quarter, it said.
However, manufacturing is expected to register 3-4% growth in Q4 as against 2.5% in Q3 and less than 1% growth in Q2. In exports, 40% respondents expect their export levels to be higher than last year for the same quarter while nearly 76% of the respondents are not likely to hire new workforce in next three months. The current average capacity utilisation as reported in the survey is around 74% for manufacturing.