06 August 2010
Second quarter finishes with a flourish for UK business
In June, according to EAMA, mechanical engineering companies saw strong UK growth both for inquiries and orders. Meanwhile although overseas business inquiries are still very strong, order levels are unchanged for the second month in a row.
Compared to a year ago, 72 per cent of the firms say business this June is up an average of some 20 per cent on June 2009. 15 per cent report no change while 13 per cent say orders are still down 20-30 per cent. In June last year, firms said they were on average 30 per cent down on 2008.
Since January the Business Monitor has been recording good growth in the number of firms reporting increases in inquiries both from UK and overseas firms. UK orders have risen consistently since the start of the year. Export growth has been more muted recently.
Martin Walder EAMA chairman: "In May and June member associations ran three major trade shows, IPEX for the printing industries, TOTAL for packaging and MACH for manufacturing technologies. Machinery manufacturers have written good, in some cases excellent business, at all three shows. The important thing now is that the customers must be able to get the finance that's needed to confirm those orders. The banks say they want to lend to viable businesses. Now it's up to the banks to deliver on that claim, otherwise the danger of the double dip will re-emerge and we won't pull ourselves back to normal business levels for another year or so."
The most active customer sectors were said to be: automotive and motor sport (20 per cent), food and dairy (17 per cent); aerospace (16 per cent) and defence and medical (both 9 per cent).
Author
Michael Richards
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Related Companies
EAMA (Engineering & Machinery Alliance)