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News Release from: Manufacturing Technologies Association | Subject: UK Manufacturing report
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 13 June 2007
1st quarter UK manufacturing performance
report
Strong growth in UK market contributes to 1st quarter performance improvements in UK manufacturing industry
Compared to the final quarter of 2006, there was a significant turn round in the trade performance of the UK machine tool sector, although there are some special factors behind this Imports of machine tools increased by +9.7% to GBP148.5 million (this is +41% higher than the 1st quarter of 2006)
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 13 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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In part, this reflects the strong growth in the UK market, which we saw in 2006 and which is expected to continue through 2007, but also the arrival of a large shipment of CNC Presses from Germany, which accounts for around GBP20 million of the total.
At the same time, exports of machine tools were worth GBP108.1 million, a fall of -18.3% from the near record high level registered at the end of 2006 (this total is -4.9% lower than the 1st quarter of 2006).
However, the high level in the previous quarter was also driven by some one-off shipments to the USA, so this is not a completely true comparison.
Further analysis shows that exports to Europe, especially the countries in the Central and Eastern part of the continent have increased compared to the same period in 2006 - for example, deliveries to the Czech Republic nearly doubled and to Poland there was an increase of +75% - and although exports to the rest of the world fell by -11%, there were some exceptions to this trend, including a quadrupling of exports to South Korea and an increase of +76% for India.
For imports, it is the European Union that has led the way, with arrivals worth double that of the 1st quarter of 2006; although this is helped by the large one-off item mentioned above, it only accounts for about half of the total increase, with Italy and the Netherlands (see note below) doing especially well.
At a product level there is, of course, a significant trade deficit for CNC Presses (-GBP23.1 million) but also, at a lower level, for CNC Boring Machines (-GBP10.0 million) and Physico-Chemical Machines (-GBP9.8 million).
The largest trade surpluses in the 1st quarter of 2007 were registered for CNC Bending Machines (+GBP4.7 million) and Machining Centres (+GBP3.8 million).
Geoff Noon, the MTA's Statistician, commented: "The significant trade deficit in the 1st quarter of 2007 reflects a number of factors; these include the continue strength of demand for machine tools in the UK which has a high import ratio, as well as some special factors which are affecting the figures in this quarter".
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