Data recently released by the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) shows that the UK aerospace industry's overall performance in 2001 was in line with expectations, showing a slight decline in total turnover in real terms of £18.42billion (down 1.5 per cent on 2000). Order intake was down by five per cent to £18.42billion and employment was down by 2.5 per cent to 147,090 reflecting the general thrust to improve productivity, rather than being the result of the impact of 11 September.
Positive areas are that operating profit rose from six per cent to seven per cent reflecting the increasing competitiveness of the UK aerospace industry, and the continuing strength of UK aerospace exports was evident at 63 per cent of turnover. The balance of trade for aerospace remains positive with a £2.8billion surplus in 2001 - aerospace exports account for seven per cent of all exported goods in the UK. "Turnover of UK-owned assets overseas increased to £7.21billion with nearly 61,000 employees based abroad, a growth of a third in the last year. In terms of turnover, this equates to the world's sixth largest aerospace industry," says David Marshall, director general of the SBAC.