UK manufacturers have suffered a significant deterioration in their order books in the last month, with export and domestic business hit, according to a closely-watched survey which raises further worries about the state of the wider economy.
Manufacturers which responded to the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) latest monthly industrial trends survey also forecast that their output volumes would be flat over the coming three months.
Of the 456 manufacturing survey respondents, 36% said total order books were below normal and only 15% reported they were better than usual.
The net 21% reporting worse-than-normal order books marked the first fall below the long-run survey average for this question since December 2011. The average for the survey has been that 17% report below-normal order books.
And the 21% balance reporting below-normal order books in the latest survey, which was conducted between July 25 and August 15, was much worse than a corresponding net 6% declaring such a position a month earlier.
In terms of export order books, 31% reported these were worse than usual and only 14% said they were better than normal.
The resultant net 17% reporting below-normal export order books marked a deterioration from a corresponding balance of 9% a month earlier.
The CBI survey casts further doubt on Chancellor George Osborne's vision, spelled out in his March 2011 Budget, of "a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers".
CBI head of economic analysis Anna Leach highlighted "a weakening in the consumer goods sector, following a strong July figure".
She noted both consumer and investment goods manufacturers had contributed to the weakening of output expectations.
The UK economy has tumbled into a double-dip recession, with three consecutive quarters of contraction recorded to date.
Of the manufacturers surveyed by the CBI, 22% forecast a fall in output volumes over the coming three months, excluding seasonal variations, with 22% predicting a rise and 56% expecting an unchanged position.
This points to flat output over the coming three months.
In the CBI's July survey, a net 11% of manufacturers had forecast a rise in output volumes on a three-month view. The zero balance in the latest survey thus marks a significant worsening of output expectations.
A survey published this month by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply showed UK manufacturing output fell in July at the fastest monthly pace for more than three years.
Samuel Tombs, UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said: "The drop in the main activity balances of the UK CBI industrial trends survey in August brings the survey closer into line with other, recently-weaker measures of manufacturing output."
He added: "The output expectations balance fell from plus-11 to zero, a level which has in the past pointed to no change in manufacturing output. The total and export orders balances also fell to their lowest levels this year.
"Admittedly, the survey's picture of stagnation is more encouraging than the CIPS survey, which in July pointed to quarterly falls in output of more than 2%.
"We suspect that the reality lies somewhere between these two surveys.
"As long as the eurozone crisis drags on and saps confidence, further modest falls in manufacturing output seem likely through the remainder of this year."
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