INDUSTRY body Scottish Engineering’s latest survey is a real mixed bag.
There are plenty of positives, the key one being that the sector has achieved a sixth consecutive quarter of expansion in the face of the huge political uncertainty created by the Brexit vote.
Among other reasons for cheer is the signal from the survey that Scottish engineering companies servicing the oil and gas industry enjoyed strong growth in order intake in the latest three months.
Furthermore, against the backdrop of the pound’s post-Brexit vote weakness, the engineering sector north of the Border maintained a strong pace of export order growth in the latest three months.
However, while we must not lose sight of the sector’s continuing commendable resilience, there are also some worrying signs in the survey.
The pace of growth of output volumes and staffing has slowed sharply in the latest three months. And, although the rate of increase of overall order intake remains robust, it too has come well off the boil.
Scottish engineering companies are still doing well in very difficult circumstances.
However, with the challenges around Brexit uncertainty and the UK’s eventual exit from the European Union almost certain to continue to grow, the gradient of the climb facing companies looks sure to increase. Time will tell if this causes their pace of advance to slow further.
The main thing that is certain is that the “political mayhem” around Brexit cited by Bryan Buchan, the outgoing chief executive of Scottish Engineering, is set to drag on for a long, long time.
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