DESPITE extended holiday closures at some companies and order books which may still reflect the pre-credit crunch climate, most manufacturing businesses will find trading difficult in the coming months, Master Cutler Martin Howell said this week.
In a survey of first quarter 2009 trade prospects for traditional industries in the Sheffield region, one of Britain's top five manufacturing centres, Mr Howell said the current state of demand was "patchy."
"We have a few companies who are shrugging of the worst effects of recession in any of their markets. These are specialists, producing materials or components which have a long lead time and require detailed certification.
"Others, unfortunately, are affected by severe downturns in, for instance, the motor industry and are already beginning to feel the effects of what can be quite sharp inventory reductions."
He urged the government to give more attention to its medium-term planning to alleviate the effects of such a downturn.
"Having rescued banks and other financial institutions, and attempted to increase consumer spending, we should now be giving much more thought to encouraging the undercurrents of industrial recovery, perhaps through careful choice of state investments in infrastructure.
"Plans to help companies finance more and better retraining, as well as significant tax concessions on business investment would also be of assistance during this difficult period," said Mr Howell, a former director of Corus, the UK steel producer.
What do you think? Add your comments below.
MORE:
Local News
Local Sport
Arts Guide
Listings Guide
Restaurant Guide
LettersThe full article contains 257 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
