JLR manufacturing increases after factory restart

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has said their manufacturing production has increased for the first time in a year in October after the cyber-attack.

The manufacturing sector in the UK is in decline and the S&P Global UK manufacturing PMI survey, watched closely by economists, has showed a reading of 49.7 last month steadily improving from September’s reading of 46.2 in September.

Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence said, “The October PMI survey shows UK manufacturing production rising for the first time in a year, which is a positive in itself.

“However, there are real concerns that the bounce could prove short-lived.

“Sluggish demand from both domestic and overseas markets meant October’s output growth was dependent on firms eating into backlogs of orders placed in prior months and allowing unsold stock to accumulate.”

Elliott Jordan-Doak, senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “We think a good chunk of the jump in the PMI in October reflects the resumption of car production following the JLR cyber attack.

“Bottom line, a reopening of business will always boost growth temporarily, so we take the one-year high in the manufacturing PMI with a pinch of salt.

“We think activity will struggle in the coming months as tariff ructions continue to hit global trade.”