UK manufacturers' forecasts of strong growth in output volumes have failed to materialise, a survey has revealed.
The Confederation of British Industry's survey of more than 400 manufacturers, conducted between May 22 and June 12 and published yesterday, showed output volumes were broadly flat over the latest three months.
Of firms surveyed, 26% reported a rise in output and 24% experienced a fall.
This outturn contrasts with forecasts in the March, April and May CBI industrial trends surveys of strong growth in output volumes on a three-month view.
In spite of the continuing disappointment for UK manufacturers on the output front, 27% predicted a rise in volumes in the coming three months and only 17% projected a decline, with the remainder anticipating an unchanged position.
However, this net 10% projecting a rise in output on a three-month view is weaker than respective corresponding balances of 22%, 23%, and 18% in the CBI's March, April, and May surveys.
The June survey points to continuing weakness in UK manufacturers' export order books, with only 11% reporting these were above normal levels and 33% viewing them as worse than usual.
The net 22% of manufacturers reporting below-normal export order books was the worst such reading since January, and marked a deterioration from a corresponding balance of 17% in last month's survey.
According to the CBI survey, small and medium-sized firms are struggling most with export orders.
Only 14% of UK manufacturers said overall order books were above normal, with 32% considering them worse than usual.
The CBI noted the resultant net 18% reporting below-normal order books was in line with the 17% long-run survey average.
Stephen Gifford, CBI director of economics, said: "Manufacturers are treading water with domestic and export orders stagnant. Production levels remain flat, but firms predict a modest pick-up over the coming three months. "While an expected improvement in conditions at home and abroad should lead to better prospects for manufacturers, the business climate still remains quite fragile."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article