No sign of recovery in manufacturing

Factory output shows no signs of recovery, although there are glimmers of hope in some sub-sectors.

In the three months to August, manufacturing output was down by 0.7% on the previous three-month period, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

There is some anecdotal evidence, according to the ONS, to suggest that some businesses had longer summer closures in August 2012, or that closures were held later than in previous years so that they affected August exclusively instead of being spread across July and August. In particular, this affected month-on-month movements in the manufacture of transport equipment industries.

This is borne out by the volatile monthly figures where manufacturing output fell by 1.1% in August 2012 compared with July, following a rise of 3.1% in July on June. Ten manufacturing sub-sectors fell, two rose and one remained unchanged.

Output in the three months to August was down by 1.9% on the same quarter period 2011. The largest contributions to the month on month fall came from the manufacture of transport equipment, which fell by 4.5%, followed by the manufacture of machinery and equipment which fell by 2.5%.

The index of production (manufacturing, mining and utilities) fell by 0.1% in the three months to August compared with the previous three-month period. Production was down by 1.9% on the same three-month period of 2011.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_282396.pdf