The recovery in oil and commodity prices in the first three months of 2016 has led to improved levels of confidence in the precision engineering sector, according to Columbia Metals’ latest survey on market conditions.
A greater proportion of respondents now expect sales turnover to increase, and there is increased optimism that investment and staffing levels will rise. A majority of precision engineering companies continue to expect that the competitive environment will intensify over the next year, although this is a less commonly held view than in the previous quarter.
“As oil and commodity prices have recovered in the early part of this year, precision engineers have gained confidence over prospects for the next 12 months”, says David Stephenson, Managing Director of Columbia Metals. “The recent travails in the UK steel industry have not affected sentiment in any notable way. Instead, more companies now expect headcount and investment levels to rise.”
Columbia Metals carried out its survey in March 2016 with precision engineering companies in the oil & gas, aerospace, defence and motorsport industries.
