Capacity utilization is telling a very unusual story. Information technology –computers & peripherals, communication equipment and semiconductors — is operating at recession levels. Part of the story is import tablets and smart phones displacing personal computers. But there has to be more to the story.
Meanwhile, the rest of industry appears to be operating at near full operating rates. Manufacturing excluding info tech capacity is only a few percentage points below its 2007 peak. Given the long run downward slope of capacity utilization this is probably effectively full utilization
