By Suban Abdulla<\/p>\n
LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) – A gauge of British manufacturers’ cost pressures jumped in April and delivery delays were the most widespread since \u200cmid-2022 due to the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a \u200csurvey that underscored the impact of the Iran war.<\/p>\n
S&P Global’s UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to \u200b53.7 in April from 51.0 in March. The final reading was slightly higher than the 53.6 in the provisional April data.<\/p>\n
International shipping has been disrupted since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in late February, and the vital sea channel remains closed, choking off 20% \u200cof the world’s supplies of \u2060oil and gas, and sending global energy prices surging.<\/p>\n
Many vessels have also opted to avoid the Red Sea route to the Suez \u2060Canal due to attacks from Houthi forces in Yemen, opting to take the much longer journey around the southern tip of Africa instead.<\/p>\n
Restrictions on ships aiming to go through the Strait \u200bof \u200bHormuz have lengthened delivery times to the greatest \u200bextent in nearly four years, S&P \u200csaid.<\/p>\n
While the survey showed output and new orders rose last month, manufacturers’ input costs jumped at the fastest pace since June 2022.<\/p>\n
“The gain in production is partly the result of clients bringing forward purchases to mitigate expected price uplifts and supply disruptions,” Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said.<\/p>\n
“As this process unwinds later in the \u200cyear, alongside declining business optimism, growth in the \u200bsector could cool while inflationary pressures remain on \u200bhigh heat.”<\/p>\n
There was also some evidence \u200bof businesses passing on rising costs, with the PMI’s measure of \u200caverage selling prices rising at the sharpest \u200brate since November 2022.<\/p>\n
Business \u200boptimism about the coming 12 months fell to its lowest level in a year. Survey respondents noted concerns about the impact of the Middle East conflict \u200band the consequences of \u200cgovernment policies.<\/p>\n
However, hiring increased for the first time since October 2024 when finance \u200bminister Rachel Reeves announced tax increases on employers in her first budget.<\/p>\n
(Reporting \u200bby Suban Abdulla; Editing by Hugh Lawson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Suban Abdulla LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) – A gauge of British manufacturers’ cost pressures jumped in April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1993,11839,24,1992,1146,5,1990,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-26401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-delivery-delays","9":"tag-inflationary-pressures","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-sp-global","12":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-uk-manufacturing-purchasing-managers","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116498635308721932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}