Indian products better than Chinese and Thai

New Delhi, Sept 12: Despite tough competition in manufacturing from China and Thailand to Indian products in the international markets and significant expansion in capacity undertaken by the Indian industry, various sectors have registered commendable increase in capacity utilisation during 2005-06 as against 2004-05.

According to the analysis carried out by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM), sectors in beverages, cotton textiles, textile products, machinery and equipment, transport equipment and electricity have registered increase in capacity utilisation .

Some of the sectors like leather and leather fur products, non-metallic mineral products capacity utilisation have been on the downswing.

The overall capacity utilisation of the industrial sector is estimated to have increased from 82.2 per cent during 2004-05 to 82.7 per cent during 2005-06, reflecting the sustained growth in industrial activity.

''There has been a sharp increase especially in textile from 81.5 per cent to 92.7 per cent (13.74 per cent), beverages, tobacco and products from 77 per cent to 84.9 per cent (10.26 per cent), cotton textiles from 91.4 per cent to 97.4 per cent (6.56 per cent) and in paper and printing products from 82.5 per cent to 88.7 per cent (7.52 per cent),'' ASSOCHAM President Anil K Agarwal said.

The negative growth in the capacity utilisation has also seen particularly in leather and leather fur products, by 5.76 per cent from 84.5 per cent to 79.9 per cent in 2005-06. It was followed by non-metallic mineral products, falling 3.58 per cent from 86.8 per cent to 83.8 per cent and in metal products and parts by 3.2 per cent from 71.1 per cent to 68.8 per cent.

The other areas covered by the analysis are food products, wool silk and man-made fibre textiles, jute and other vegetable fibre textiles, wood and wood products, chemicals and chemical products, rubber, plastic, petroleum and coal, basic metal and alloy industries.

Mr Agarwal said the manufacturing industry has shown a slight improvement in capacity utilisation from its previous percentage figure of 80.4 per cent in 2004-05 to 80.8 per cent in 2005-06.

In the manufacturing industry, there are 17 categories, out of which only seven categories have registered increase in the capacity utilisation. These are beverages, tobacco and products; cotton textiles; wool, silk and man-made fibre textiles; textile products; paper and products and printing; machinery and equipment; and transport equipment and parts.

Capacity utilisation is estimated to be above 90 per cent in the case of industries like cotton textiles (97.4 per cent), wool, silk and man-made fibres (90.8 per cent) and textile products (92.7 per cent).

Altogether, 10 industries in the manufacturing industry experienced a decline in their utilisation of capacities. These, for the record, were food products; jute and other vegetable fibre textiles; wood and wood products and furniture; leather and leather and fur products; chemicals and chemical products; rubber, plastic, petroleum and coal; non-metallic mineral products; basic metal and alloy industries; metal products and parts and other manufacturing industries.

The other components of the industrial activities, namely mining and quarrying and electricity have the capacity utilisation percentages as 85.9 per cent and 94.0 per cent in 2005-06 as compared to the previous year's 86.1 per cent and 92.5 per cent respectively.

UNI