In its latest Quarterly Review, Scottish Engineering, the support group for the industry shows increases in both UK and export orders. The prices for these orders have improved in the majority of companies even though price margins remain universally poor.

 
These benefits are being experienced across all sizes of company and in most of the engineering subsectors. One noticeable exception being metal manufacturing where total orders are down (25%up,31%same,44%down) as are UK orders (23%up,39%same,38%down).

One person who is not totally surprised by this information is Dr Peter Hughes, Chief Executive of Scottish Engineering who said: "I am pleased to note that the positive noises I am hearing from member companies around the country are being confirmed by the data for our Quarterly Review. It is particularly encouraging to see that the hard-pressed electronics sector is reporting positive order intake for the third consecutive quarter."

The general figures, incorporating all sizes of company and sectors, show that staffing levels (29%up,57%same,14%down) remain very healthy but overtime (29%up,45%same,26%down) has fallen slightly, though still remains positive.

Dr Hughes added: "I am particularly pleased to see that plans for both capital investment and training investment are remaining at high levels, though large companies have a similar number of companies planning to invest in plant as there are who are cutting back on expenditure."

He also gave credit to ‘business improvement' groups like the Scottish Engineering Lean Club for developing techniques which have made the engineering sector more competitive and successful - which is reflected in the continuing positive trading results in the Review.

For further information contact Colin McGill on 0141 221 3181 or 07976 224412 or visit the Scottish Engineering website on www.scottishengineering.org.uk