Output improves to 20-month high and job losses slow but global problems continue to restrict foreign orders
A jump in domestic orders helped pull UK factories out of almost two years of contraction last month, according to a leading business survey.
Output from the manufacturing sector improved to a 20-month high in March, marking the end of a period of shrinking activity that started in July 2022.
Continue reading...Aerospace group chief executive urges UK and Europe to pool efforts and merge fighter jet programmes
Europe is unprepared for war with Russia or the risk that Donald Trump could withdraw the US from Nato and needs to ramp up spending on defence equipment, the boss of Airbus has said.
Guillaume Faury, the chief executive of Europe’s biggest aerospace and defence company, said it was a “defining moment” for the continent’s defence industry, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought war to western Europe’s borders.
Continue reading...Regulator demands recall of two models, understood to affect about 10,000 of the popular products
Dutch authorities have ordered a leading European manufacturer of cargo bikes to suspend sales and recall thousands of its products amid safety concerns over frame breakages.
The Dutch regulator for food and consumer product safety (NVWA) called a temporary halt to trading by Babboe, which makes family cargo bikes seen daily on school runs from Berlin to Bristol, “because their safety cannot be sufficiently guaranteed”.
Continue reading...Engine-maker says it has made £150m of its £400m to £500m savings target, with up to 2,500 jobs to go
The British engine-maker Rolls-Royce has said cost-cutting plans that will result in it axing up to 2,500 jobs by the end of next year are “well under way”, as it swung to a £1.6bn underlying operating profit for 2023.
The aerospace engineering specialist reported the statutory pre-tax profits for 2023 against losses of £1.5bn in 2022, helped by cost savings and better-than-expected revenues.
Continue reading...French startup hoping to develop Ballarat manufacturing hub says its dirigibles will transport freight too cumbersome for road
They’re huge, can float through the air, and are synonymous with one of history’s most notorious transport disasters – but airships could be set for a cargo-oriented, green renaissance.
French startup Flying Whales has a vision to begin manufacturing its airships – which instead of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg, will rely on 180,000 cubic metres of helium – by 2025, with an eye to gaining regulatory certification to begin operating in skies by the end of 2027.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Politicians say chemicals producer ‘appears to be implicated’ in abuses of minorities in Chinese province
The German chemicals producer BASF “appears to be implicated in gross abuses” of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and should withdraw from the Chinese province, a group of politicians from around the world have said.
The group made the allegation in a letter to BASF’s chair, Martin Brudermüller, on Monday, after the German media outlets Der Spiegel and ZDF published a joint investigation on Friday.
Continue reading...Supply chain difficulties have led to job losses and cuts in purchasing and stocks, S&P Global poll shows
Britain’s factories have been hit by disruption caused by Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea that led to shipping delays and contributed to rising costs, as the boss of Adidas warned about “exploding” global freight rates.
UK manufacturers have experienced growing supply chain difficulties, as the Red Sea crisis led to the rerouting of deliveries of raw materials, components and other goods away from the Suez Canal, a survey has shown.
Continue reading...Findings show British bosses growing in confidence over sector’s prospects despite ‘headwinds of sustained economic challenges’
Britain’s largest manufacturers believe the UK is increasing its competitiveness as a global hub for manufacturing, despite high energy costs, worker shortages and political instability holding back progress.
In a crunch period for the economy before the general election, the manufacturing trade body Make UK and the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said industry bosses were growing more confident about the sector’s prospects, but “headwinds of sustained economic challenges” still remained.
Continue reading...Build Your Dreams outsells rival in final quarter of 2023 figures for battery-only vehicles
Elon Musk’s Tesla has been overtaken by its Chinese rival, BYD, as the world’s top selling electric carmaker.
BYD, which has been backed by the US investment billionaire Warren Buffett since 2008, has beaten Tesla’s production for a second consecutive year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘Significant’ number of staff sacked from digger firm after drug and alcohol tests
JCB, one of the UK’s biggest manufacturers, is investigating a spate of drug use among workers based at its headquarters and has sacked a “significant” number of staff, the Guardian can reveal.
A message sent to UK employees last week by the digger-maker’s group human resources director, Max Jeffery, seen by the Guardian, said it had been conducting a “series of investigations into substance misuse” over the past two months. This had resulted in a “small but significant number of people leaving JCB”.
Continue reading...European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping at summit on Thursday
The EU is to tell China that its €400bn (£343bn) trade deficit is not sustainable long term amid fears that it will flood the bloc with subsidised electric cars, solar panels and medical devices, threatening European manufacturing and jobs.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, and Charles Michel, the European Council president, will meet Xi Jinping at a summit on Thursday, the second of its kind this year.
Continue reading...Derbyshire woman who bought item said she felt uneasy at find that raises concerns over possible prison labour
An ID card that appears to belong to a Chinese prisoner was found inside the lining of a coat from the British brand Regatta, raising concerns that the clothing was manufactured using prison labour.
The waterproof women’s coat was bought online by a woman in Derbyshire in the Black Friday sale. When it arrived on 22 November, she could feel a hard rectangular item in the right sleeve, which restricted the movement of her elbow.
Continue reading...Fire at Kostenko mine is latest in series of deadly incidents, and has prompted nationalisation of global company’s local affiliate
Kazakhstan held nationwide mourning on Sunday after 45 people died in a fire at an ArcelorMittal mine, the worst accident in the central Asian country’s post-Soviet history.
The tragedy, which struck at the Kostenko coalmine in the Karaganda region on Saturday, came after a series of deadly incidents at ArcelorMittal mines and has prompted the nationalisation of the company’s local affiliate.
Continue reading...Miles Roberts of packaging-maker DS Smith warns manufacturing will decline unless government provides clarity about decarbonisation
The UK risks seeing its manufacturing sector fall behind rival economies if the government does not offer certainty over policies on shifting to green energy, according to the head of FTSE 100 packaging maker DS Smith.
Miles Roberts, the company’s chief executive, said British government decarbonisation policy has lacked the clarity of European rivals, meaning DS Smith has moved ahead with a €90m (£78m) investment in a paper mill in Rouen, northern France, while waiting for more clarity from government before investing in upgrades in the UK.
Continue reading...Report says many aspects make companies uncompetitive, as chancellor Jeremy Hunt is urged to make reforms
Britain’s manufacturers are urging the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to announce a “major MOT” of the UK’s “uncompetitive” business tax and regulatory system in his autumn statement next month.
Many aspects of the system are “not fit for purpose”, the business group Make UK said in a report published in the middle of the political party conference season, and called for major reform as part of an industrial strategy.
Continue reading...Firms preparing for difficult year as ‘potent cocktail’ of difficulties takes hold, says industry lobby group
UK manufacturers are cutting their recruitment plans after being hit by a slowdown in orders as a downturn looms, a new survey shows.
Britain’s manufacturers are “battening down the hatches” amid a sharp drop in activity, according to the latest quarterly data from Make UK, which represents manufacturers, and the business advisory firm BDO.
Continue reading...Survey of businesses gives further indication that Bank of England could limit future interest rate rises
Businesses are pulling back on hiring and slowing their output under the strain of rising borrowing costs, according to a study that gives a further signal that the Bank of England could limit future interest rate rises.
A modest pickup in manufacturing in August failed to prevent a slowdown in broader UK private sector economic activity, a survey of businesses by the accountancy firm BDO found.
Continue reading...IPPR wants government to take a stake in green technology firms to help Britain keep up with EU and US
The UK risks losing out to the US and EU in the global race to a net zero economy unless the government increases green investment by taking a stake in the companies of the future, a thinktank has said.
The left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research said Britain needed a “national investment fund” (NIF) that would back new firms and secure a share of any future profits for the public as it called for the state to adopt a “Dragons’ Den” type approach to supporting enterprises.
Continue reading...UK-backed move could help spread cost of developing fighter jet and drones, but may prove controversial
Saudi Arabia has asked the UK, Japan and Italy to be made a full partner in their joint effort to build the next generation of fighter jets, in a move backed by the British government.
Companies from the UK, Japan and Italy are working together to build a new fighter jet and other systems such as drones under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), also known as Tempest. The programme aims to deliver the first planes by 2035, a tight turnaround.
Continue reading...Government bows to pressure from industry over costs of switching over to British marking
The UK will retain the EU’s product safety mark indefinitely, in the latest climbdown from proposed post-Brexit changes, after the government bowed to pressure from industry and manufacturers.
The CE (Conformité Européenne) mark is used by the bloc to certify that a wide range of items – from electrical goods and construction materials to medical devices and toys – meet safety standards.
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