§ Mr. J. H. Osbornasked the Minister of Technology what value of orders have been received to date this year for home market and export markets respectively for machine tools; what are the value of deliveries to date this year to the home market, to the export market and in total; and how this performance compares with the same period last year.
§ Dr. BrayIn total, orders are 3 per cent. lower and deliveries 5 per cent. higher than in January—september, 1966. Orders for machine tools in January-September, 1967, are provisionally estimated at £63 million for the home market and £45 million for the export62W market; deliveries were £82 million and £34 million respectively. It is not possible to make an exact comparison with last year for home and export separately but it is estimated that orders for export were 35 per cent. above 1966 and for home 20 per cent. below and that the increase in deliveries was much the same on the export market as the home market.