UK’s industrial firms named as regional stars of world’s manufacturing sector
UK factories are in a sweet spot, according to a report on global industrial conditions released this morning, with companies re-shoring to an increasingly competitive UK manufacturing sector.
The Boston Consulting Group released research on the state of the world’s manufacturing sector this morning, calling the UK a “rising regional star”. The authors also say that the country’s high level of labour flexibility and reduced corporation tax have encouraged firms back to the country.
Sukand Ramachandran, managing director of Boston Consulting Group in London, noted that Fraser Institute scores the UK most highly of all west and east European economies for its low level of labour market regulation.
The report suggests that other countries in Europe, including France, Italy, Belgium and Sweden, are losing ground in their manufacturing competitiveness when compared to the UK.
Though British manufacturers are performing impressively, the US and Mexico are named by the group as the world’s rising stars. Unlike the European economies analysed, those in north America have benefitted from the rapid exploration of shale gas, and energy costs have declined.
Gas prices have dropped by between a quarter and a third in the past 10 years in north America, while Europe has seen rising costs, which hit energy-intensive manufacturers particularly severely.
The report also noted that the at – tractiveness of China as a manufacturing colossus is waning, with the country’s industrial wages rising by nearly 400 per cent in the last decade. The price of industrial electricity has also climbed in the massive developing economy.