ONS figures show increase in manufacturing output

Manufacturing output up in the 12 months to April 2015.

New statistics released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) paint a positive picture for April’s total production output.

Estimations for this rate show that increases were made in April 2015 in comparison to the corresponding month last year and also March 2015.

From April 2014, the rate has jumped 1.2% and is 0.4% higher than last month.

An encouraging sign is that in the 12 months between April 2014 and April 2015, all four main sectors experienced increases.

One of the sectors is manufacturing, which showed an increase in the same 12-month period. Although slightly down from March 2015, manufacturing output is still 0.2% higher than it was in April 2014.

The figures from ONS display are estimates of the Index of Production (IoP) for the UK production industries in April 2015 – with the IoP known as one of the earliest indicators of growth in the four sectors of production; manufacturing, mining & quarrying, energy supply and water supply & waste management.

The manufacturing output increase between April 2014 and April 2015 has contributed an extra 0.2 percentage points to the total production growth, with output increased in six of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors.

Transportation of equipment was the manufacturing sub-sector that had the best performance recorded, showing a 6.4% growth, meaning a contribution of 0.8 percentage points to total production.

Mining & quarrying showed strong performance between April 2014 and April 2015 with a 6.2% increase – contributing 0.9 percentage points to total production – and extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas has increased by almost 10% in that time.

This sector of production output also showed strong increases between March and April, with a 5.6% rise. Again, the crude petroleum and natural gas extraction was chiefly responsible for this.

With the AMP6 management programme now underway, it is no surprise to see water & waste management output on the rise. The 12 months to April 2015 recorded a 2.2% rise – thanks to an increase in three of the four sub-sectors – while the monthly figure also went up by almost 1%, representing the fourth successive month in which a rise has been reported.

Waste collection, treatment and disposal activities was the main reason behind the rise in the March to April figure as well as the 12-month figure recorded.

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