The hoped for improvement in the UK manufacturing sector failed to materialise in January with order books falling back to lows not seen since the summer of 2005, a leading business lobby group said today. In its industrial trends survey, the Confederation of British Industry said that 42 pct of firms reported lower than normal order books while 14 pct reported higher orders. The resulting net balance of -28 pct compares with -22 pct the previous months and expectations of an improvement to -20 pct pct. The latest reading is also the weakest since August last year. Not all the news was bad, however, with export orders improving sharply. A total of 33 pct of firms said export orders were below normal while 23 pct said they were above normal, resulting in a net balance of -10 pct in January. In December the net balance was at -23 pct. The latest reading is the best since August 2004.