According to the provisional data released by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, in March this year the capacity utilization rate in the Turkish basic metal manufacturing industry was 77.7 percent, rising 3.8 percentage points compared to the previous month, marking an increase after two consecutive months of decline on month-on-month basis, while the March percentage was up one percentage point on year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, in March of the current year the capacity utilization rate in the manufacture of metal products, except machinery and equipment, fell by 0.4 percentage points month on month to 69.9 percent, down slightly from the 70.4 percent recorded in March 2012.

The capacity utilization rate in Turkey's general manufacturing industry, on the other hand, was at 72.7 percent in March this year, indicating an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to February and down from 73.1 percent in March 2012.