There is a particular kind of Monday morning that nobody in manufacturing enjoys. The one where you arrive at your desk, look at the news, and realise that a shipping route that you depend on has just become a conflict zone, or that a tariff announcement made at 2am Washington time has just added 25% to the cost of your steel enclosures. In 2026, those Mondays are coming around with uncomfortable frequency. The sheer volume of geopolitical disruption hitting UK manufacturers right now is unlike anything most of us have experienced in our working lives. Red Sea shipping disruptions continue to inflate logistics costs and extend lead times. And behind all of this, the ongoing fragmentation of global trade into competing blocs is forcing a fundamental rethink of where we source, where we sell, and how we plan. For companies in the drives, controls and automation sector, these are not abstract geopolitical talking points. They are line items on a P&L account. A variable-speed drive contains steel, copper, aluminium, power semiconductors, and rare-earth magnets, each one of which sits on a supply chain that crosses many borders and is subject to multiple points of political risk. A contactor or circuit breaker assembled in Europe may rely on components manufactured in Asia, shipped through waters that are no longer reliably safe. The idea that you can build a resilient automation business without thinking hard about geopolitics ended sometime around 2022. If anyone still needed convincing, 2026 has made the case emphatically. The energy price dimension deserves particular attention. The UK already has some of the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world – a structural disadvantage that Make UK and others have been flagging for years. The latest Middle East escalation has made that worse, with diesel prices jumping nearly 18 pence per litre in March alone. For manufacturers running CNC machines, test rigs, and production lines around the clock, energy is not a marginal cost. It is a competitive differentiator or, increasingly, a competitive handicap. This is precisely the kind of environment where trade associations tend to be a safe haven for business understanding. Gambica has been actively convening our members to assess and respond to these pressures – a role we played through successive crises, from the post-Covid supply chain crunch to the energy shock following the Ukraine conflict. Through our member forums and webinars, Gambica provides a space where automation manufacturers can share intelligence on supply chain disruptions, compare notes on component availability, and discuss practical strategies for managing cost volatility. That peer-to-peer exchange, conducted in confidence among companies that understand each other's markets, is something no amount of desk research can replicate. Regular business policy updates from our CEO, and our Business Impacts publication, really help members to understand how, when and why actions need to be taken. Our market statistics collections also take on hightened importance in volatile times. When the ground is shifting this fast, anecdote is not enough. Members need reliable data on order intakes, market trends, and sector performance to make sound investment and inventory decisions. The association's quarterly statistics, covering the automation, drives and switchgear markets, give members a factual baseline against which to test their own experience and plan accordingly. So, what can manufacturers in our sector do? Three things stand out. First, map your supply chain exposure properly. Not just tier one suppliers, but the components behind the components. If your soft-starter relies on IGBTs sourced from a single facility in a geopolitically sensitive region, you need to know that now, not when the next disruption hits. Second, take energy costs seriously as a strategic issue, not just an operational one. Investing in variablespeed drives and energy-efficient motor systems is not only good practice for net-zero, but also a hedge against the price volatility that geopolitical instability creates. Third, engage with your trade association. Gambica exists to amplify members' voices in the rooms where policy is shaped, to provide the market intelligence that supports better decisions, and to facilitate the industry collaboration that makes all of us more resilient. Nobody can predict which crisis will land next. But the pattern is clear: the era of stable, predictable global trade is over. For UK automation manufacturers, the choice is not between risk and safety. It is between managing risk intelligently and pretending it will go away. That is not really a choice at all. How to cope with global disruption In our increasingly volatile world, manufacturers face tough choices if they are to remain competitive and stay ahead of their rivals. Nikesh Mistry*, Gambica’s sector head for automation, examines some of the issues and how manufacturers can insulate themselves against the challenges emerging from all sides. “The era of stable, predictable global trade is over. For UK manufacturers, the choice is not between risk and safety. It is between managing risk intelligently, and pretending it will go away.” * Gambica is the trade association for the automation, control, instrumentation and laboratory technology sectors in the UK. You can get in touch with Nikesh Mistry on 020 7642 8094 or nikesh.mistry@gambica.org.uk, or via the Gambica Web site: www.gambica.org.uk www.drivesncontrols.com May 2026 45
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=