19.06.23
Britain’s manufacturers continue to grow at a stable rate in the second quarter of the year, easing fears of a significant recession for the sector.
The latest Make UK/BDO Q2 Manufacturing Outlook survey shows a continued positive picture with the improvement being driven by strong demand in the ‘Other Transport’ subsector, which includes manufacturers in aerospace, shipping and rail. This strong performance is also observed across ‘Electronics’ subsectors too due to high demand from Europe, with the balance of output reporting very strong in these industries.
However, despite conditions remaining positive, Make UK is still forecasting a slight contraction for manufacturing in 2023, although the picture remains far better than the significant contraction Make UK was forecasting at the end of last year and in Q1.
Also, with this edition of Manufacturing Outlook, we are now in the 10th consecutive quarter of elevated price metrics, where manufacturers have consistently raised both their UK prices and Export prices far beyond the norm quarter-to-quarter since the first quarter of 2021. The change this quarter is that the rate at which the prices are increasing has slowed on balance at its fastest rate yet, giving the strongest indication that inflation may be easing at the production level.