UK leather manufacturing bottoms out in April
There was surprise good news for the UK leather sector yesterday, with the release of manufacturing production figures from the Office of National Statistics.
Compared to the previous three-month period, the combined output of the UK leather, textiles and clothing sector ended May 31 2002 was up 1.3%. On closer examination, however, the picture is a little more mixed.
In price index terms, the industry subsector: ‘Tanning and dressing of leather’ was up 1.1 points to 55.8 from 54.7 in April 2002 (its lowest point ever), where a figure of 100 represents the 1995 average. The same figure for the manufacture of footwear was 78.7 (down from 79.6 recorded in April) and 79.5 for the manufacture of leather luggage and saddlery (79.4 in April).
Output of leather, textiles and clothing combined was down 5.1 % compared with May 2001 with overall manufacturing output being down 2.6%.
