West German manufacturing: Reduced capacity utilisation and order reserves

Firms in the manufacturing industry (excluding food and beverages) used their production capacities in March at an 87.1% rate. The utilisation rate was thus significantly lower than in December (87.8%). The depth of order reserves fell from 3.0 production months at the end of 2000 to 2.9 months, and an increasing number of firms assessed reserves as too low. In east Germany capacity utilisation fell from 84.7% in December to 83.4%, and order reserves were given a more negative appraisal.