Materials Shortages and Industrial Bottlenecks: Causes, Trends, Prospects

The availability of industrial materials to the manufacturing sector and the economy at large is essential to supporting growth without accelerating inflation. Access to critical raw materials is important in ensuring that the industrial materials are available. Equally important is the capacity of manufacturing industries to process the raw materials into industrial materials. GAO made a study of the meaning and importance of having adequate capacity to make industrial materials. In it, GAO defined adequate capacity, reviewed its relationship to the economy, analyzed the causes of the severe capacity shortages of 1973 and 1974, reviewed the current trends in capacity growth, and identified some relationships to Government activities.