Smaller firms' factory operating rate hits record low

SEOUL, March 1 (Yonhap) -- The factory operating rate of South Korean small and
medium enterprises tumbled to an all-time low in January as they took the brunt
of a sagging economy, a business organization said Sunday.
Local small and mid-size companies operated at an average 62.6 percent of their
capacity in January, down from 64.1 percent in December, according to the Korea
Federation of Small and Medium Business.
The association said January's figure was the lowest since it started compiling
related data in March 2002.
The average capacity utilization rate of smaller firms has been hovering below
the 70-percent mark since March last year, when the figure reached 71.1 percent.
Local small and medium enterprises have been hit hard by the economy's slump
which made a big dent in domestic demand and overseas shipments.
Buffeted by tumbling exports, the South Korean economy, Asia's fourth-largest,
shrank 5.6 percent on-year in the fourth quarter of last year, marking the worst
annual drop since the first quarter of 1998.
South Korea recently forecast that its economy will contract 2 percent on-year
this year on faltering exports and anemic domestic demand, a sharp turnaround
from an annual 2.5 percent advance in 2008.
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