Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced it will provide up to £1bn in loans for Britains 168,000 manufacturing firms this year in an effort to help the sector recover.
The loans will be made available to firms investing for growth at cut-price fixed rates and under flexible terms, including the option to defer repayments for up to three years.
Peter Ibbetson, chairman of business banking at RBS, said that the UK manufacturing industry has been one of the sectors most affected by the recession, but it is now starting to see some encouraging signs of improvement.
"As we see many of our manufacturing customers turning their thoughts to investment in order to drive competitiveness, we want to send a clear message of support to them by creating a fund that is designed specifically to enable that investment," he added.
"We believe the fixed rate deals we are launching are better than you would find anywhere else in the market currently."
Lord Davies, Minister for Trade and Investment, welcomed the move by RBS and said that "it really emphasises how manufacturing is critical to the recovery". He added that the UK is still the sixth largest manufacturing economy in the world.
The loan fund is the latest attempt by the bank to reach the governments lending targets for 2010.




