U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan Back to Pre-2003 Industrial Production Levels

An interesting chart from the Bank of Japan’s latest monthly economic report. Japanese capacity utilization is way down. Around 20% of manufacturing facilities are standing idle. This is an improvement from the beginning of 2009, when 35% of capacity was shut down. But a marked decrease from pre-financial-crisis levels, when there was almost no excess capacity to be found. The story is much the same throughout the rest of the developed world. Capacity utilization across the OECD countries is down 10 to 15% since the onset of the financial crisis. Part of the problem is we had a big build-out in industrial production between 2003 and 2008. During those years, OECD industrial production jumped by over 15%. The global economic downturn has brought nations…