Engineering news
Overseas demand for British-built vehicles such as BMW's Mini and Nissan's Qashqai has driven the UK's first trade surplus in cars since 1976.
The country exported £6.1 billion worth of cars, exceeding the value of imports by £561 million, over the first three months of the year, according to the Office for National Statistics. That represented a 20% rise over the previous quarter.
In addition, the volume of cars exported increased 21.8% in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, while the volume of cars imported increased 5.8%.
The increase was largely driven by a strong growth in car exports to non-EU countries – which was up by 28.5% – with demand coming from the US, China and Russia. However, the value of cars exported to EU countries also increased by 9.5%.
A Treasury spokesman said: “This is very good news for the car manufacturing sector and for the British economy, and all the more impressive given the tough economic conditions we're seeing across world markets at the moment.”
The turnaround follows significant UK investment by car manufacturers – £4 billion in 18 months – including contracts to build new models and improved facilities.
Nissan recently confirmed production of two new models at its Sunderland factory, Jaguar Land Rover announced it would be taking on another 1,000 people at Halewood, and Honda wants to almost double production at its main European plant in Swindon.
The positive balance of trade in cars of £561 million in the first three months of 2012 compares with a deficit of £373 million in the last quarter of 2011.
The value of cars imported from the EU increased by 4.5% while the value of cars imported from outside the EU fell 15.9%.