§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether he will bring up to date the information published in the Official Report on 11 December 1979 in reply to a written question from the hon. Member for Grimsby concerning trade in capital goods.
145W
§ Mr. David MitchellThe information requested, together with revisions to data given earlier, is as follows:
Lengths of Export Order Books of Capital Goods in Terms of Sales 1979 1980 Q3(R) Q3 Engineering Products: Ratio of export orders-on-hand to export sales (in terms of average monthly sales)* 9.6 ║8.9 United Kingdom Shipbuilding: Ratio of export orders-on-hand to export sales (in terms of average monthly sales)* 20.6 7.2 Combined Index Engineering and shipbuilding together in index form†(1970=100) 64 46 West Germany Capital Goods Industries Ratio of index of the value of export order books to the index of export sales (1970=100) 99 ║114 * Ratios for United Kingdom engineering products are derived from valuations at 1975 prices. For United Kingdom shipbuilding, ratios are based on gross registered tonnages of merchant ships—100 gross tons and over. † The engineering and shipbuilding series have been weighted together using 1975 export sales and the resulting series rounded and re-centred upon 1970=100. ‡ Estimates have had to be used for the third quarter of 1980. ║1st two months.