Revised Initial letter 9-26-22

QPC-L1

(Draft)

A Message from the Director, U.S. Census Bureau:

Your business has been selected to participate in the Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization (QPC). The QPC collects data on your plant's quarterly production under various conditions.

Information from the QPC is used to produce industry and national-level measures of capacity and capacity utilization. The Department of Defense uses statistics from the QPC to assess the ability of U.S. industries to meet demand for goods under national emergency scenarios. The Federal Reserve Board uses information from the QPC to estimate industrial production and capacity and to identify potential industry-level bottlenecks and sources of inflationary pressure. Your response will be kept strictly confidential and is not publicly released.

Authentication Code:

Due Date:

Account Manager:

1. Register OR sign in at https://portal.census.gov

2. Add your authentication code.

3. Report by clicking on “REPORT NOW.” You can return to your account over multiple sessions to complete the survey.

For assistance with completing this survey, please sign into your Census Bureau account or call our customer help line at 1-800-201-4647, Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern time.

We greatly appreciate your time in filling out this survey. Your participation is critical to ensure the accuracy of our country’s statistics, to support the public’s understanding of economic developments, and to have an accurate picture of the nation’s emergency capabilities.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Santos

Director

OMB Number

This collection has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The eight-digit OMB approval number is 0607-0175 and appears in the top right corner of each reporting screen. Without this approval, we could not conduct this survey.

Authority and Confidentiality

Title 13, United States Code, Section 8(b); Title 50, United States Code, Section 98, et seq; and

Title 12, United States Code, Section 244, authorize the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct this collection and request your voluntary assistance. The Census Bureau is required by Title 13, United States Code, Section 9, to keep your information confidential and use your responses only to produce statistics. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify your business, organization, or institution. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are protected from cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit your data.

Burden Estimate Statement

We estimate the Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization to take 20 to 40 minutes, with an average of 30 minutes, to complete. Factors such as company size, complexity and activity will affect your actual time to complete the survey.  This estimate includes the time to review instructions, search existing data sources, gather and maintain the data needed, and complete and review the survey.