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Manufacturers were less positive about order positions and future output in the next three months. Their opinion about current stocks was unchanged. Two component indicators of producer confidence were positive. The majority of manufacturers considered their order position to be strong rather than weak, given the time of year. Furthermore, manufacturers anticipating output to increase over the next three months outnumbered those expecting a decrease.
However, there was one negative component indicator: more manufacturers defined their current stock of finished products as too large rather than too small.
In more than half of the major industrial industries, producer confidence deteriorated in April. Producer confidence in the textiles, clothes, and leather industry declined from 4.7 in March to 3 in April, as per CBS.
The industrial capacity utilisation rate stood at 82.5 per cent at the start of the second quarter (Q2) of 2023. It was 82.6 per cent in the previous quarter. Just as in the preceding two quarters, the capacity utilisation rate in the second quarter of 2023 was lower than in the same quarter a year earlier.
In April 2023, 17.7 per cent of respondents expected their sales prices to increase in the next three months, 6 per cent expected a decrease. As a result, the balance of positive and negative answers was 11.7 per cent. That is the lowest level since December 2020. In January 2023, the balance was still 45.6 per cent, as per the Business Survey Netherlands.
In February 2023, the average daily output of the Dutch manufacturing industry was 2 per cent lower than in February 2022. In January, the decrease was 2.3 per cent.
Germany is an important market for the Dutch manufacturing industry. In April, German entrepreneurs showed slightly improved confidence on balance, according to the Business Climate Index of the IFO Institute. They were less negative about their future business situation, but also less positive about their current situation. The average daily output generated by the German manufacturing industry was up by 1.7 per cent year-on-year in February, as reported by Destatis.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)