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'Suffocating' UK factories report biggest fall in output in seven years - PMI


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'Suffocating' UK factories report biggest fall in output in seven years - PMI

 

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FILE PHOTO: Kays Factory worker Robert Holt operates a lathe to make a curling stone in Mauchline, Scotland, Britain, January 11, 2018. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

 

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - British manufacturers’ output fell by the most in seven years last month as Brexit worries and weaker global demand choked off growth, a closely watched business survey showed on Thursday.

 

Hours before the Bank of England is due to update its economic outlook, the monthly purchasing managers’ index (PMI) added to signs that the economy is at risk of slipping into recession as businesses battle falling demand from Europe and China and the risk of a disruptive no-deal Brexit.

 

July’s IHS Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI remained at the six-and-a-half-year low of 48.0 it struck in June, a shade better than the median forecast of a fall to 47.7 in a Reuters poll of economists.

 

But the survey’s output component fell further below the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction to 47.0, its lowest since July 2012 when the euro zone was in the throes of a debt crisis.

 

“July saw the UK manufacturing sector suffocating under the choke-hold of slower global economic growth, political uncertainty and the unwinding of earlier Brexit stockpiling activity,” IHS Markit economist Rob Dobson said.

 

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to take Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31, regardless of whether he can secure a revised transition deal with the bloc, pushing sterling to its weakest since November 2016 against a basket of currencies GBPTWI=BOEL.

 

Businesses fear a no-deal Brexit would lead to major disruption at ports following the reimposition of tariffs and customs checks, and IHS Markit said foreign customers were already reducing their reliance on British firms.

 

“Clients delayed, cancelled or re-routed orders away from the UK, leading to a further decline in new work intakes from both domestic and overseas markets,” Dobson said.

 

Britain’s car industry said on Wednesday that investment fell by more than 70% in the first half of 2019 due to Brexit worries. The Confederation of British Industry said small manufacturers were the gloomiest since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

 

Brexit has compounded broader problems affecting Europe’s manufacturing industry, which has suffered from reduced Chinese demand as a by-product of U.S. tariffs on imports from China.

 

A euro zone flash manufacturing PMI for July fell to its lowest since 2012 and growth in the currency bloc sank to 0.2% in the second quarter from 0.4% at the start of the year.

 

The Bank of England predicts British economic growth will sink to zero in the second quarter from 0.5% in the first three months of 2019, when growth got a boost as businesses rushed to stockpile goods before the original Brexit date of March 29.

 

July’s survey showed manufacturers’ stock levels were fairly stable as some businesses continued to run them down while others started to build up again ahead of the new Oct. 31 deadline.

 

Businesses also reported the weaker pound was pushing up the cost of some imports, though overall raw material costs rose at the slowest rate in three years, as did the prices manufacturers sold their goods at.

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-01
Posted
14 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

Wasn't a very resilient business then ?

 

Surely you, like the rest of us knew, the value of the Pound wouldbe subject to speculation until Brexit was resolved ?

And what ‘resilient’ businesses have you built?

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Posted
1 hour ago, Estrada said:

The succesful company I built up in the UK, that was established 50 years ago, has gone bankrupt due to Brexit. I sold my shares in 1994 and I worked closely with Anthony Bamford of JCB for years. Lord Bamford is the main financier of Brexit and Boris Johnson to the tune of at least GBP 1 Million to date. He and other millionaires behind Brexit, stand make billions whilst duping the leavers into believing that they will benefit, whch clearly they are not. Leavers told me 3 years ago that the fall in the value of the Pound would only be for 3 weeks. 3 years later, the pound is still on its knees, businesses are planning to close and relocate with more job losses.

 

Trade Secretary announces Freeports Advisory Panel will ensure UK is ready to trade post-Brexit

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Posted
10 hours ago, HeyHeyHey said:

It's just summer, people enjoying their holidays with weak GBP

 

Gonna pick up as soon as Boris delivers in winter

So this happens every summmer?

Posted
8 minutes ago, AlexRich said:

 

Get your revisionist history in early. What happened to the sunny uplands everybody was promised?

 

Even Brexiteers know we are heading for disaster, with business closures and job losses. But when it arrives it will be everyone else’s fault, not theirs.

 

Boris majority with the DUP down to one. All that damage for more than three years and it will be ended by a second referendum. 

Nothing revisionist about it all. To be revisionist I would have to be refuting widely held and agreed facts. I was merely challenging an opinion, just as I would challenge yours on the likelihood or result of a second referendum. You (and others here) may not like a dissenting view, that doesn't make it revisionist.

 

As for the prospects for the current government, and/or a second referendum, we will have to wait and see.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Dcheech said:

I like the working class schtick. 

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Its always time for champagne when the poor get rinsed and hung out to dry????

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Posted (edited)
23 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Almost every company I worked for has gone bust by now.

I don't think Brexit is to blame, it's usually poor management, cheap foreign competition or asset stripping.

Me too but that was 30 years ago! Nothing to do with Brexit. There might be one still going but not the same name.

 

Oh the curling stone guy's job will be OK I think they are the sole manufacturer in the world.

Edited by VocalNeal
Posted
22 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Almost every company I worked for has gone bust by now.

I don't think Brexit is to blame, it's usually poor management, cheap foreign competition or asset stripping.

I worked for John Lewis for many years, ....they are now closing stores as are Waitrose.

Who would of thought that could possibly happen.

 

If John Lewis are suffering  then so is everybody unless you have a Pound Shop...they are obviously booming

Posted
59 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

And what ‘resilient’ businesses have you built?

 

Oh my...... I  have a recession - and Brexit proof -  business,   I own a crematorium. 

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

Oh my...... I  have a recession - and Brexit proof -  business,   I own a crematorium. 

Never short of reluctant customers then; the logic of voting for Brexit if you own a crematorium, is inescapable. Myself I was considering opening a re-cycling centre for bankrupt businesses.

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Posted
1 minute ago, Nigel Garvie said:

Never short of reluctant customers then; the logic of voting for Brexit if you own a crematorium, is inescapable. Myself I was considering opening a re-cycling centre for bankrupt businesses.

 

 

The logic of voting Brexit was for a better country for my family and business.

 

You are late on parade with your business idea - recessions of 2008, 1991 etc saw to that....... and the world carried on - as it will post-Brexit.

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Posted
32 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Me too but that was 30 years ago! Nothing to do with Brexit. There might be one still going but not the same name.

 

Oh the curling stone guy's job will be OK I think they are the sole manufacturer in the world.

Nope, stones are made here in Canada, the Home of Curling, too. We of course have a trade pact with the E.U. so there may need to be some hiring done. 

Posted
22 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

The logic of voting Brexit was for a better country for my family and business.

 

You are late on parade with your business idea - recessions of 2008, 1991 etc saw to that....... and the world carried on - as it will post-Brexit.

The world yes. The small patch of it that is the UK, maybe not so much.

Posted
5 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

The logic of voting Brexit was for a better country for my family and business.

 

You are late on parade with your business idea - recessions of 2008, 1991 etc saw to that....... and the world carried on - as it will post-Brexit.

Your business may do well, improve even. Anyone who imagines that Brexit will be good overall for British business, does so in the face of vast and growing amounts of evidence to the contrary. Many Brexiteer posters on here have already self diagnosed with stage IV Grand mal denialism.

I agree we don't have many manufacturing businesses left to lose, maybe not a great idea. However I have a cunning plan (Plan B) we have accumulated a large surplus of Unicorns here, maybe there are export opportunities.

If I thought the world wasn't going to carry on I would have gone on a multi chemical super bender, and would have required your companies services before now!

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