The ONS has just released the results from the 2023 Annual Business Survey; this is largely a structural report which cannot be finalized until all of the data has been reconciled. Comparing what we have defined as “metal manufacturing” with the sector as a whole shows that this group accounted for 31% of total manufacturing turnover.
As noted above, the Annual Business Survey (ABS) is a structural report and takes a significant length of time to complete – hence, it is only now that we are getting the 2023 results. However, it does bring some additional information compared to more timely reports, perhaps most notably, the detailed industry breakdown of investment spending.
For the purposes of this report, we have created a sub-group of industries that we are calling “metal manufacturing”. This comprises the metal products, machinery, automotive and other transport equipment (the latter includes aerospace) industries –therefore, it covers most of the customers for the manufacturing technology sector. We can then note trends for this group and also compare the data with that for total manufacturing.
In 2023, there was a fall of -6% in the number of enterprises classified to “metal manufacturing” but an increase of +11% in total turnover; as a result, average turnover grew to £5.8 million per enterprise in this group. “Metal manufacturing” accounted for just over 31% of total manufacturing turnover in 2023.
The other key data from this survey is for investment. In the regular quarterly data, manufacturing is only broken down at a relatively high level – we only get to figures for “Engineering & Vehicles” industries, which is slightly different to our “metal manufacturing” definition. However, this survey does go down to the detailed industry level, although some are not then published due to confidentiality.
The “metal manufacturing” group accounted for just over 25% of total manufacturing net capital investment in 2023, although the value of this fell by -17% compared to 2022; hence, the ratio has fallen to a new low level having peaked at over 27% in 2016. In part, this is because we exclude the electrical and electronics industries from our bespoke group.
You can download the ONS Statistical Bulletin and dataset from their web-site at https://www.ons.gov.uk/releasecalendar (10 April) or request it from MTA; however, you might find our members only analysis of the key industries more useful – please contact Geoff Noon ([email protected]) if you would like these figures.