New figures released today reveal Scotland's engineering sector has recorded its worst figures for eight years.

New figures released today reveal Scotland's engineering sector has recorded its worst figures for eight years.

The latest quarterly review from Scottish Engineering shows that order intake figures were well down on the last quarter and output volumes stand at their lowest level for 10 years.

The findings were branded "depressing reading" by Scottish Engineering bosses.

The study found that UK orders - across all sectors and sizes of companies - are as low as they have been since Scottish Engineering started its review in 1991.

Export orders have also dropped "considerably" since the last quarter of 2008, according to the research.

However, the report's compilers did find that companies are forecasting that the next three months will be slightly better for both orders and output.

And recruitment within large companies shows that more firms are taking on staff than are shedding them.

Chief Executive of Scottish Engineering, Dr Peter Hughes, said: "While the figures produced in this quarter's review make depressing reading I am hearing reports from individual companies who are doing well."

He went on: "Our sector has been down before, most recently in 2001, and I believe that the manufacturing engineering sector is in good shape to take best advantage once this recession bottoms out and industry once again picks up.

"As I have said in the past, if governments had invested even half the amount in the manufacturing sector as they have in the banks then we would have a flourishing economy."