EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Billions in funding for British manufacturers

The Government is announcing £4.5bn in funding for British manufacturing to increase investment in eight sectors across the UK. Funding will be available from 2025 for five years, providing industry with longer term certainty about investments. The Government is earmarking over £2bn for the automotive industry and £975m for aerospace, supporting the manufacturing, supply chain and development of zero emission vehicles, and investment in energy efficient and zero-carbon aircraft equipment.

Alongside this pledge, the government has committed to £960m for a ‘Green Industries Growth Accelerator’ to support clean energy manufacturing, and £520m for life sciences manufacturing to build resilience for future health emergencies and capitalise on the UK’s world-leading research and development. The announcement arrives ahead of the second Global Investment Summit taking place this week.
For further information www.gov.uk

Work starts on aerospace innovation facility

Industry, academia and government leaders gathered in Sheffield earlier this month to break ground for a University of Sheffield AMRC innovation facility and research project led by Boeing. The Composites at Speed and Scale (COMPASS) research facility will house the Boeing-led Isothermic High-Rate Sustainable Structures (IHSS) project dedicated to developing and testing new technologies needed to meet future demand for lighter commercial aircraft and help the aviation industry reach net zero by 2050.

The combined £80m COMPASS facility and IHSS project, announced earlier this year in partnership with Loop Technology and Spirit AeroSystems, will initially create around 50 jobs in South Yorkshire and, based on aircraft demand forecasts, has the potential to create up to 3000 UK jobs long-term and around £2bn annually in export opportunities.The facility will be complete by the end of 2024.
For further information www.amrc.co.uk

United Grinding opens Singapore facility

The United Grinding Group has intensified its business in Southeast Asia by established a subsidiary in Singapore. Despite having a presence in the region for many years through representatives and the Walter Ewag Asia-Pacific subsidiary, the new United Grinding subsidiary in Singapore bundles and intensifies the company’slocal activitiesfor grinding, eroding, laser and measuring machines.“The ability to offer the group’s bundled technology and application know-how from a single subsidiary provides customers with many advantages,” states Stephan Nell, CEO of the United Grinding Group.
For further information www.grinding.com

DC Norris buys Gilwood

Gareth Harris and Chris Ratten of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed joint administrators of Gilwood (Fabricators) Co Ltd on 1 November 2023 and have secured the sale of the business and its assets to DC Norris & Co in a pre-pack administration deal.
Based in Heywood, Lancashire, Gilwood is a family-run metal fabrication business specialising in pressure vessels and static process plant equipment. The 26-employee company manufactures products for a number of industries including oil and gas, petrochemicals, nuclear, and food and drink. All 26 jobs have been saved as part of the sale.
For further information www.rsmuk.com

95,000 expected at METALEX 2023

The 37th edition of METALEX 2023, the ASEAN region’sleadingmachine tool and metalworking technologies event, will take place inhalls 98-104 at BITEC (Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre) on 22-25 November. The event will see a 10% expansion on the previous show, featuringcirca 2500 brands of machine tools and metalworking technologies from 50 countries.

The organiser RX Tradex (formerly Reed Tradex) says it has tens of thousands of industrialistsfrom more than 40 countries pre-registered to visit the exhibition, which this year takes place under the theme of ‘The Innovators’. In total, the organiser expects around 95,000 visitors to attend and estimates the event will generate no less than THB7bn in trade value. In addition to the exhibition, the event will host 35 informative seminars.
For further information www.metalex.co.th