UK manufacturers have seen a slight firming of their order books in recent weeks, as export demand has improved, a survey has shown.

Of manufacturers surveyed by the Confederation of British Industry between July 26 and August 11, 30 per cent reported total order books were above normal. Meanwhile, 17 per cent of manufacturers declared order books were below usual levels.

The resultant net 13 per cent of UK manufacturers reporting above-normal order books marked a modest improvement from the balance of 10 per cent reporting such a position in the previous monthly report. But it was adrift of the net 16 per cent reporting above-normal order books in the June survey.

The improvement in the latest survey appeared to be driven by export business.

A net 11 per cent of UK manufacturers reported above-normal export order books in this month’s survey, a significantly better outturn than the balance of two per cent declaring such a position in the July report.

Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club think-tank, noted manufacturing surveys had been “appreciably stronger than recent official data”.

He added: “The CBI and other surveys pointed to clear manufacturing expansion in the second quarter, whereas hard ONS [Office for National Statistics] data revealed contraction of 0.6 per cent. The major question remains as to whether healthy manufacturing survey evidence will be increasingly reflected in improved hard output data.”