West fares best as corporate insolvencies show 21 per cent decrease year-on-year

Total corporate insolvencies for the first eight months of 2013 stands at 920 – a 21% drop when compared to last years’ total of 1,170 – according to the latest statistics published by www.InsolvencyJournal.ie,.

Total Company failures for the month of August this year stand at 108 compared to 126 in August last year, a drop of 14%.

Regionally, Leinster accounted for 60% of the 108 overall monthly total, with Dublin making up for 52% of all Leinster business failures. Munster followed with 31% of the overall total. Ulster and Connacht were the provinces least affected.

There was some good news for the construction sector, which has seen a 17% year on year drop in corporate insolvencies – from 282 construction business failures for the first eight months of 2012 compared to 234 recorded so far this year.

There were a total of 35 construction related business failures in August this year, up 14% compared to August 2012.

However, according to research from Ulster Bank, the construction sector saw tentative signs of recovery in July with new orders up for the first time in 19 months and house building edging back into positive territory.

The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index – a seasonally adjusted index designed to track changes in total construction activity – remained below the 50.0 no-change mark in July, but rose sharply to 47.5 from 43.4 in the previous month. This signalled a marked easing in the rate of decline in activity, with the latest fall the slowest since December 2011.

There was also some good news for the manufacturing sector which experienced a significant drop from 16 insolvencies recorded in August 2012 to 5 business failures in August 2013.

In addition data published by the Central Statistics Office, showed production in the industrial sector had grown by 1.2 per cent in July compared to June – meaning a year-on-year increase of 6.4 per cent.

Retail corporate insolvencies so far this year stand at 133, a 10% drop compared to the 149 recorded during the same period last year. Despite this positive year on year comparison, the overall KBC Ireland/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index decreased to 68.2 in July, from 70.6 in June.

The motor industry has seen steady improvement with a 50% reduction in level of business failures from May to August this year. More than 11,500 new cars were sold in July following the introduction of the new 132 plate.