Here are the business stories making the headlines locally and across the UK this morning.
A96 dualling: Fears more than £37 million could be ‘thrown down the drain’
More than £37 million has already been spent on initial work to upgrade two major stretches of the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness – which may not ever be fully dualled.
The price tag, which emerged in a freedom of information response from the Scottish Government, prompted fears taxpayers cash could end up “thrown down the drain”.
A £5m review into plans to fully dual the full route connecting the two cities has been dogged by delays and is now well over a year late.
Since 2018, £19.8m has been spent on preparation works to dual the route between Aberdeen and just east of Huntly.
Scotland proposes UK's first ban on caging laying hens
Scotland could become the first part of the UK to ban egg companies from keeping chickens in cages.
The Scottish government has announced a new consultation on outlawing the use of cages to house hens involved in egg production.
Agriculture minister Jim Fairlie said if it was implemented Scotland would be "leading the way in improving the welfare of animals".
The use of battery cages for birds was banned in the UK in 2012.
UK manufacturing returns to growth for first time in 20 months
The UK's manufacturing industry has returned to growth and is showing "tentative signs of recovery", according to a closely-watched survey.
Both output and new orders increased in March, while business optimism also hit an 11-month high, S&P Global/CIPS UK found.
The firms' manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) score rose to a better-than-expected 50.3 last month, up from 47.5 in February.
Any figure above 50 represents growth. March was the first time the threshold had been reached since July 2022 - 20 months ago - and comes following growing concern about the sector.
Tesla 'disaster' with fewest deliveries since 2022
Deliveries from Elon Musk's Tesla have slid sharply in the first three months of the year, as the EV company grappled with a fire at its European factory, global shipping disruption and other challenges.
The company handed over just under 387,000 electric cars to customers - the smallest quarterly figure in more than a year.
That was down more than 8% year-on-year and far fewer than analysts expected.
Shares fell more than 4% on the news.