January/February 2021

BOARDROOM REPORT 28 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS January/February 2021 www.hpmag.co.uk Re-shoring Some level of ‘re-shoring’ – for example, relocating production plants from Asia back to Europe or the US – has taken place. Neil Anderton, hydraulics and industrial director, Slack & Parr, explains that Slack & Parr has had a different view on the topic of re-shoring for some time. “While we did open our own workshop in China back in 2005, this was mainly for service and support,” he says. “Despite many of our peers and competitors moving out to supposed low- cost areas of the world such as China, Vietnam, Eastern Europe etc, we had always felt the potential negatives largely cancelled out the potential positives. We had spent a lot of time analysing and debating the best way forward, and in the middle of 2019 started work on our brand new, 75,000 sq ft factory right next door to our existing one in the heart of the midlands. For us, the fact we have been a UK engineering company for over 100 years is very important to us and our customers. Also, the skillset and quality of the local workforce is absolutely key to our business and how it performs. The fact that there is a lot of re-shoring happening now feels like vindication of the recent decisions we have made.” Market climate What are our commentators’ perceptions regarding market/economic improvements within the fluid power and related technology sectors over the past year or so? Jones makes the point that energy concerns continue to dominate the drive for ever-greater efficiency in compressed air systems. “For example, the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy for meeting the UK’s legally binding carbon commitments aims to help businesses decarbonise,” she explains. “Part of the Strategy includes the ‘Industrial Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency Roadmap Action Plan’. The action plan will seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and become more energy efficient while remaining competitive during the UK’s low carbon transition. Yet, while compressed air energy consumption represents a considerable overhead for manufacturers, its performance and efficiency can often be overlooked, and improvement programmes delayed. This can be counterproductive, because there are many simple ways that users can reduce their energy usage, without investing in new capital plant and equipment. Whether its fixing leaks, recovering heat, improve control, managing air downstream, or simply encouraging staff to use compressed air more efficiently and safety – taking a whole system approach to energy savings really can pay dividends.” Bartlett reflects that there was clearly a shock to the system in the spring of 2020, doubled down by the oil & gas sector’s volatility. “Many members did take the opportunity to re-structure their businesses accordingly,” he says. “We then saw decent rebound as the summer progressed, only to regress again in the autumn. Short-term it doesn’t seem particularly rosy, but a long-view has always paid off in the valve industry.” Chessari considers that the biggest challenge for technology in MP Filtri’s sector is the data security. “If businesses don’t access and store technology in a secure way, this will be a concern in the year ahead,” he stresses. “There would be a huge amount of business and personal data transmitted and stored electronically. This will increase the opportunities for data breaches.” Another issue cited by Chessari will be if the pandemic continues, how to build new relationship with important potentials. “Can we do that over video-calls?” he asks. Ringlstetter points out that the global air compressor market was estimated to be around USD 15 billion with a forecasted CAGR of between 2 and 3% year on year (pre-COVID-19). “Even though the pandemic has had a significant impact on world-wide capital investments, we are confident that a correction in the market will follow the widespread introduction of recently announced efficacious vaccines,” he says. “However, one of the silver linings to this horrendous pandemic has been the realisation that tackling climate change just might be possible. Who will ever forget the images of the ‘before and after’ shots of cities normally blanketed under a fog of pollution becoming clear again as industries and travel came to a standstill? People do not want to lose their blue skies and views of almost forgotten mountains off in the distance as they return to their hectic and wasteful past habits. Therefore, the focus on energy efficiency will play an even more important role in our recovery.” Ringlstetter adds that while speaking with ELGi Europe’s channel partners and end users, the company is sensing an increased confidence in its ability to Jones reflects that, as we get used to working in our new normal, we are refocusing on the industry’s requirements. “Despite a signed agreement, the process of bringing goods into the UK and providing service to the EU is not without its challenges,” she says. “Early issues surrounding rules of origin and tariffs will be worked through, but we should not expect this to be without financial impact. EU legislation and directives are also core to the trade association and as we move into the post EU era. It will be critically important to ensure members and users are well-informed of any changes and potential divergence in this important area.” Jones adds that as well as the day-to- day standards development work, BCAS is working closely with BSI to ensure that our industry key players are well- represented at this important crossroad. “The Society is a ‘go-to’ service for standards and legislation interpretation in our sector and this new era brings with it challenges that we are ideally placed to support,” she says. “Being a member of a trade association, our members are well- placed to ensure they have the information and a source of reference and, in conjunction with BEIS, they have acknowledged the role trade associations have played in preparing their members for the transition.” Pavlov comments that Atlas Copco Compressors UK is one of the leading providers of machinery and services to the UK manufacturing sector, with factories and distribution centre located in Belgium and Italy. “Therefore, we very much welcomed the free trade deal announced in the last days of 2020,” he says. “Since all of our products (compressors, blowers, dryers etc.) qualify for EU preferential origin we are not paying import duties, except for some spare parts sourced from outside of the EU. This is very good for our customers and for ourselves. We are also very happy to say that for our import flows we are experiencing no delays at all in European and UK ports and airfreight hubs, which is also as a result of our thorough preparation to make sure that all paperwork was correct from day one.” Adrian Farnham, managing director, Camozzi Automation Ltd Neil Anderton, hydraulics and industrial director, Slack & Parr