Producer confidence manufacturing industry drops back

The mood among Dutch manufacturers deteriorated in October. The producer confidence indicator dropped from – 0.5 in September to – 3.2 in October, bringing the indicator at the same level as in August.

Producer confidence consists of three component indicators: manufacturers’ opinions on their order positions, the expected output over the next three months and opinions on their stocks of finished products.

Manufacturers were much more pessimistic in October about both their order positions and future output than in September. Their opinions about their stocks also deteriorated, though to a lesser extent.

For the fourth month in a row, manufacturers expecting employment in their branch to increase in the next three months were outnumbered by those expecting employment to decrease. During this period, the group expecting employment to decline has steadily grown.

Manufacturers indicated that the value of the orders they received dropped over the last three months. With 100.2, the order position index (orders expressed in months of work) reached the lowest level since July 2010.

With 80.1 percent, the capacity utilisation rate was marginally lower in October than in July (80.9 percent). One in every four manufacturers considered insufficient demand as an obstacle to production, as against one in every five in the previous quarter. Manufacturers evaluating their production capacity as too large marginally outnumbered those evaluating their production capacity as too small. They indicated that their competitive position on the domestic and foreign market improved somewhat in the past three months. 

Producer confidence in manufacturing industry

More figures can be found in dossier Business cycle.