September's top 10 engineering business stories

First things first and some good news for UK industry: manufacturers are expecting modest output growth in the coming three months, while order books have improved compared with August’s disappointing figures. This is according to the CBI’s latest monthly Industrial Trends Survey.

Of the 425 manufacturers responding to the survey, 28 per cent expect to increase their volume of output over the course of the next three months, while 21 per cent expect it to fall. The resulting balance of +7 per cent is in line with the long-run average (+6 per cent) and follows the expectation last month of a flat period for output (zero per cent).

The same story reveals that total order books saw an improvement from August (balance of -21 per cent), with 19 per cent of companies reporting them as above normal and 28 per cent saying that order levels were below normal in September. The rounded balance of -8 per cent is also well above the long-run average (-17 per cent) and back in line with July’s results (-6 per cent). Export orders also recovered with a balance of -10 per cent — well above the long-run average of -21 per cent.