Aerospace and defence revenues grew 3.6% to £82m. Growth remains very strong in the UK, where we are delivering new capacity to meet the increased demand. The capacity shortfalls in our customers' supply chain in Continental Europe and the USA have continued throughout this period, constraining our growth.

Energy revenues grew 20.0% to £31m, benefiting from the continuing recovery in onshore North American oil & gas. Subsea revenues, which have historically been driven by our HIP PF and Surface Technology processes, are now showing some early signs of recovery. Large frame industrial gas turbine revenues are down as previously indicated.

Our automotive business continues to perform ahead of the market, delivering 9.4% revenue growth to £110m, with more than 85% of revenues coming from the car & light truck market. This performance, in a sector which is flat, builds on the double-digit revenue growth performance that we saw in 2017 and reflects the success that Bodycote has had in winning new contracts on some key platforms for the auto manufacturers. We have also benefited in our Emerging Markets business, aided by new facilities, as auto manufacturers increasingly build capacity in these rapid growth territories. We continue to invest in LPC and S³P to service our auto customers. These technologies are establishing themselves as enablers for some of the developments in auto technology, with the resultant benefit to revenue growth.

General industrial revenues were 9.0% higher, growing to £145m, with particularly good growth coming from our Specialist Technologies which contributed 2.5% of the growth. We have seen good growth across all key markets and believe the recovery in the resources sector is having a secondary benefit to the general industrial market.

1. A review of the Company’s Operating Segments is contained in the Business review section.