Industrial capacity utilisation, fourth quarter 2023
Decreased capacity utilisation in industry
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2024-02-20 8.00
Capacity utilisation in industry decreased by 1.3 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with the third quarter of 2023 in seasonally adjusted figures.
- For the third consecutive quarter, capacity utilisation is decreasing, showing the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2020. The decline in the fourth quarter of 2023 can largely be explained by insufficient demand," says Karl Sahlberg, statistician at SCB.
The decrease in capacity utilisation in industry in the fourth quarter led to a decrease in the level of utilisation, which amounted to 88.4 percent in seasonally adjusted figures.
On an annual basis, capacity utilisation decreased by 1.3 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of 2022 and amounted to 88.1 percent in calendar adjusted figures.
The figures for the fourth quarter of 2023 are preliminary. Since the previous publication capacity utilisation in the third quarter of 2023 compared with the second quarter of 2023 has been revised downwards by 0.3 percentage points, to a utilisation rate of 89.7 percent in seasonally adjusted figures.
Capacity utilisation in the third quarter of 2023 compared with the corresponding quarter a year ago has been revised downwards by 0.2 percentage points to a utilisation rate of 89.6 percent in calendar adjusted figures.
1) Calendar and seasonally adjusted figures 2) Calendar adjusted figures
New statistics: Reasons for Lower Capacity Utilisation
When businesses have a capacity utilisation rate of less than 100%, they must specify a primary reason for the lower capacity utilisation. The response options are fixed, and only one option can be selected. The shares of responses for each reason are distributed according to the diagram below. The responses are unweighted, unlike the capacity utilisation, which is weighted by industrial turnover.
During the financial crisis of 2009, "insufficient demand" was the predominant cause of lower capacity utilisation. During the pandemic, many businesses stated that the lower capacity utilisation could not be explained with the fixed response options that were available, several then stated the reason "other", which explains the increase in the variable during the period. The response "shortage of input materials" reached high levels during the period from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022, as several businesses reported having issues with the supply of input materials due to transportation problems.
| Reason for lower capacity utilisation | Shares | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2023 | Q4 2023-Q3 2023 | Q4 2023-Q4 2022 | |||||
| Q4 | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | ||||
| Lack of employees | 6.9 | 7.3 | 6 | 5.7 | 4.5 | ‑1.2 | ‑2.4 | |
| Shortage of input materials | 7.7 | 6.7 | 5.6 | 4.1 | 2.6 | ‑1.5 | ‑5.1 | |
| Insufficient demand | 55 | 52.9 | 54.9 | 56.8 | 61.1 | 4.3 | 6.1 | |
| Production disruptions | 19.9 | 21.5 | 22.9 | 23.5 | 20.6 | ‑2.9 | 0.7 | |
| Other | 10.4 | 11.5 | 10.7 | 9.8 | 11.3 | 1.5 | 0.9 | |
The reason that experienced the largest increase in shares compared to the previous quarter was insufficient demand, which rose from 56.8% to 61.1%. This can largely explain the decline in capacity utilisation during the fourth quarter of 2023.
Statistics on reasons for lower capacity utilisation are available in the statistical database with a time period stretching back to the first quarter of 1998. The purpose of the statistics is to better explain changes in capacity utilisation. Please note that this part of the statistics is under development and may change.
Other information
Outdated tables
The table "Industrial capacity utilisation, actual utilisation by industrial classification SNI2007 (aggregates). Quarter 1990K1 - 2023K1" is no longer updated as of 2023-08-18. The reason for this is a reduced sample as a result of the increased use of VAT data for industry turnover. Consequently, since then, the industry's capacity utilization has only been presented for the total industrial sector (B+C).
Revisions
When capacity utilisation for a new quarter is published, the percentages for the previous quarter are also revised. Normally, the figures for the previous quarter are revised mainly due to new and revised information.
Next publishing will be
2024-05-21 at 08:00.
Statistical Database
More information is available in the Statistical Database
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.