It would be an understatement to say that the forecast looks decidedly mixed for UK manufacturing post-Brexit.
On the one hand, data from the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for March and April is encouraging. Two consecutive months of strong growth in output, order books and employment would seem to bode well for the sector.
On the other hand, profitability has dropped to its lowest level for a decade, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
And both studies observe that the sector faces strong headwinds as it navigates the post-Brexit era.
PTC’s Nick Leeder is joined by Francisco Betti, head of advanced manufacturing at the World Economic Forum, and Chris Courtney, Challenge Director of the Manufacturing Made Smarter programme at UK Research and Innovation, to chat about what this potentially means for UK manufacturing, and what’s next.