Ricardo announces order intake

Ricardo has noted an increasing level of sales interest in a number regions but said that trading conditions in its core markets had not significantly improved since the year end.

In its Interim Management Statement the global engineering and automotive consultancy claimed that client confidence had increased but noted that orders were still difficult to predict, with month-by-month slippages regularly occurring.

In the US the group experienced a poor start to the financial year, made worse by significantly lower passenger-car-based orders. However, it said that recent defence orders with additional government and technology work are anticipated to lead to a positive trend in the year ahead.

The company also expects an increase in orders in Germany, where there have been further discussions with clients since the summer shutdown of car-manufacturing facilities. In the rest of Europe the group has noted comparably less activity, however its UK business has seen a boost in the level of active discussions from Asia.