UK manufacturing in red hot form as PMI soars to 57

Growth in output and new orders rocketed to their highest levels since 1994 according to the Markit/CIPS industry bellwether. The PMI has now signalled expansion for five successive months. Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit said: "The UK's factories are booming again. Orders and output are growing at the fastest rates for almost twenty years, as rising demand from domestic customers is being accompanied by a return to growth of our largest trading partner, the eurozone." Output soared highest across the consumer, intermediate and investment goods sectors. The performance of intermediate goods producers was the strongest, with the pace of output growth hitting a series record. The domestic market was the main driver of new order growth, CIPS/Markit data revealed. However there was also a solid increase in overseas demand with strong export demand from the USA, China, mainland Europe, India, Scandinavia, Brazil and Ireland. However, the PMI data was laced with caution over rising input prices. Average input prices rose at the fastest rate for two years and at an above survey average pace. The month-on-month upward movement in the Input Prices Index (10.4 points) was the second-steepest in the survey history. Companies reported higher prices paid for commodities, feedstock, oil, paper, polymers and timber. Average selling prices also increased, but to a much lesser degree than registered for costs.