UK manufacturing had the strongest growh for two and a half years in August according to a survey.
The latest Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the sector jumped to 57.2. A figure above 50 indicates expansion.
It marks the fifth consecutive month of expansion and is the highest reading since February 2011.
Output and new orders rose at their fastest rate for 19 years.
"The UK's factories are booming again," said Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit.
"Orders and output are growing at the fastest rates for almost 20 years, as rising demand from domestic customers is being accompanied by a return to growth of our largest trading partner, the eurozone."
The one weak point in the outlook was a "marked upsurge" in cost inflation as commodity prices continued to increase.
In a separate survey, the EEF manufacturers' organisation said that it had ungraded its 2014 forecasts for manufacturing.
Lee Hopley, EEF chief economist, told the BBC: "Taken together with improving indicators across most parts of Europe the conditions are right for manufacturers to see continued expansion in the remainder of this year with growth accelerating in 2014."
Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg Bank said: "This is a consumer led recovery with legs. The improving export picture coming through in the latest surveys is the icing on the cake."
BBC Economics editor Stephanie Flanders commented that
"Today's PMI survey for UK manufacturing was the highest in more than two years and well above expectations. The output measure is now growing faster than at any time since the mid-1990s.
"It adds to a feeling that the second-quarter GDP figures were not a blip, and the manufacturing side of the economy is starting to pull its weight, not just in the home market but abroad as well.
"You'll remember the GDP numbers showed manufacturing output growing by 0.4% in the three months to the end of June, and city economists reckon it could do even better in the quarter we're in now.
"The more detailed breakdown for the second quarter also showed net trade was responsible for half of our growth overall, with exports rising more than imports.
"All of these things are good. So was the news - last month - that our trade deficit with non-European countries had almost halved in June.
"Economists at Citi reckon the UK's exports have risen by 182%, in cash terms, in the last 10 years - five times faster than the UK's exports to advanced economies.
"Within that, exports to China have risen six-fold since 2002, and exports to India are nearly five times higher. Goods exports to emerging markets now account for nearly a third of our goods exports, up from 17% in 2002.
"But, as the prime minister has pointed out, this progress is from a low base. Emerging markets still account for a much smaller share of exports in the UK than the European average. Let alone Germany."
Things are moving in the right direction. But we cannot afford any complacency.
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