Earlier this month, work began on a new £400m offshore wind facility on Teesside, which is set to become the biggest of its kind in the world and create 750 direct jobs. SeAH Wind Ltd’s 1.13m sq ft facility will produce bases for offshore wind turbines from Redcar’s Teesworks, the UK’s biggest industrial zone.

To mark the occasion, politicians, business leaders and key stakeholders visited the site for a formal signing event, followed by presentations and a Q&A session ahead of the ground-breaking ceremony. When complete, the facility will produce between 100 and 150 monopiles per year, with subsequent transportation directly from the factory to Teesworks’ under-construction South Bank Quay before heading to the North Sea for installation using specialised pile-driving equipment.
For further information www.seah.co.kr

Renishaw, is to invest over £50m at its Miskin site in Wales to increase manufacturing capacity and help meet its net-zero emissions targets. The investment will see 37,000 sq m of additional low-carbon buildings created at the 193 acre site to the west of Cardiff, consisting of two new production halls and an employee welfare facility. Renishaw currently employs 650 people at the site. The company will also refurbish the existing production halls to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Construction will take place in phases, with a 15-month programme of work starting in July 2022 to build the first of the new halls, the welfare facility and supporting infrastructure. The basic shell for the second new production hall will be built by December 2024 and be fully constructed when business levels require its use. The details of the operations that will take place in each of the new halls is yet to be fully determined, but the additional capacity will allow for increases to machining operations and the assembly of products already built at the site.
For further information www.renishaw.com

The announcement of an increase in Corporation Tax to 25% was met with obvious dismay from across industry, but for manufacturers that want or need to invest in new capital equipment the rise has a silver lining. The first-year 130% tax relief provided by the Government’s super-deduction scheme, introduced in April 2021 and applicable to any new equipment with unlimited value, now provides a bigger investment incentive.

“When applied to the new Corporation Tax rate, customers can make significant savings on new machine tools,” states Nigel Atherton, managing director of XYZ Machine Tools. For example, the purchase of a machine tool valued at £100,000 would generate tax relief of £130,000, at the old rate of Corporation Tax, saving the customer £24,700. With the tax rate at 25% that saving increases to £32,500. If a company kept the £100,000 of profit in the bank it would cost £25,000 in tax instead.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com