[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 2, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Page 19212]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-09275]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0175.
    Form Number(s): MQ-C2.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 7,500.
    Average Hours Per Response: 2 hours and 5 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 62,500.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau, on behalf of the Federal 
Reserve Board (FRB) and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), within the 
Department of Defense (DOD), requests an extension of approval for the 
Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization (QPC). The survey 
provides information on use of industrial capacity in manufacturing and 
publishing plants as defined by the North American Industry 
Classification System (NAICS). The survey is the only governmental 
source of capacity utilization rates at industry levels. Changes in 
capacity utilization are considered important indicators of investment 
demand and inflationary pressure. For these reasons, the estimates of 
capacity utilization are closely monitored by government policy makers 
and private sector decision makers.
    The survey collects the value of quarterly production, the value of 
production that could be achieved if operating under ``full 
production'' capability, and the value of production that could be 
achieved if operating under ``emergency production'' capability. The 
ratio of the actual to the full is the basis of the estimates for full 
capacity utilization rates and similarly, the actual to the emergency 
for the emergency capacity utilization rates. The survey also collects 
information by shift, on work patterns at the actual production level.
    The FRB is the primary user of the current QPC data and expressed 
the need for these quarterly data. FRB publishes measures of industrial 
production (IP), capacity, and capacity utilization in its G.17 
statistical release, which has been designated by the federal 
government as a Principal Federal Economic Indicator. Utilization rates 
from the QPC survey are a principle source for the measures of capacity 
and capacity utilization. The indexes of IP are either estimated from 
physical product data or estimated from monthly data on inputs to the 
production process, specifically production worker hours and an 
indicator of capital input. For many years, data on electric power use 
was used as the indicator of industry capital input. The deregulation 
of electricity markets led to the deterioration in the coverage and 
quality of the electricity data. As a result, in November 2005, the FRB 
discontinued its use of the industrial electric power data in the 
current estimates of IP. In order to maintain the quality of the IP 
index, the collection of these quarterly data, including the 
utilization rate data and the workweek of capital, is critical to the 
indicators of capital input use and industry output.
    The FRB uses these data in several ways. First, the QPC data are 
the primary source of information for the capacity indexes and 
utilization rates published by the FRB. Second, the QPC utilization 
rate data are used as indicators of output for some industries in the 
estimation of monthly IP. Third, the QPC utilization rate data and the 
workweek data are used to improve the projections of labor productivity 
that are used to align IP with comprehensive benchmark information from 
the Economic Census covering the Manufacturing sector and the Annual 
Survey of Manufactures. Finally, utilization rate data will assist in 
the assessment of recent changes in IP, as most of the high-frequency 
movement in utilization rates reflect production changes rather than 
capacity changes.
    The DLA uses the data to assess industrial base readiness and ramp-
up time to meet demand for goods under selected national emergency 
scenarios.
    In addition to the FRB and DLA uses, these data are published on 
the Census Bureau's website, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/qpc.html.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Frequency: Quarterly.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Section 8(b) (Census 
authority); 50 U.S.C., Section 98, et seq. (FRB authority); and 12 
U.S.C., Section 244 (DOD authority).
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202)395-5806.

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-09275 Filed 5-1-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P