Engineering news
Growth in manufacturing and a healthy level of orders has led to increased optimism in the industry, the Scottish Engineering quarterly review has revealed.
The previous quarter saw engineering orders reach their highest level since the beginning of 2011, but a drop among fabricators and metal manufacturers in the last three months saw overall orders fall slightly in the latest report.
Almost half, 41%, of those who contributed to the quarterly review reported an increase in orders, 30% said they had stayed the same, and 29% reported a drop.
While 43% said output was up, 41% said it had stayed the same and 16% reported a decrease.
In terms of staffing levels over the last three months, more than a quarter of members, reported a rise, 53% said employee numbers had stayed the same and 21% said they had gone down.
Energy minister, Fergus Ewing, said: “I welcome these figures which show continued buoyancy in Scotland's manufactured engineering sector and point to further improvement with order intake, output volumes, staffing and optimism all increasing in this fourth quarter.
“These statistics follow on from October's PMI which indicated a good start to the fourth quarter, reporting that private sector output in Scotland continued to expand at a robust rate.”
One factor for the increased optimism has been the creation of formal links between industry and graduates.
Bryan Buchan, chief executive of Scottish Engineering, said: “While we continue to see improvements on the whole, there are still areas where our member companies are finding that trading conditions are tough. Fabricators and metal manufacturers in particular are seeing order levels drop.
“One area where I am very encouraged is in the collaborative efforts of the universities and colleges with industry. The Strathclyde Engineering Academy that was launched recently by the education secretary Michael Russell MSP will hopefully bear fruit in providing companies with industry-ready graduates.”
The Strathclyde academy will offer 80 funded places each year for students working with companies such as Aggreko, Babcock, BP and Rolls-Royce during their studies.
Scottish Engineering works to promote the Scottish manufacturing engineering industry. The organisation has approximately 400 member companies covering all sectors of the manufacturing industry.