Less than a year ago, economists were scratching their heads on whether the recovery from Covid would be a V-shaped bounce back or a slow U curve recovery. Challenges certainly remain for sectors like the aerospace industry that is witnessing a delayed recovery due to travel restrictions, however the short to mid-term forecast is very positive. On the other hand, the bounce-back of the automotive industry is being held back by semi-conductor availability. Despite the prolonged shadow that Covid has cast on both sectors, manufacturing is back with a bang.
In the first week of November, prior to this issue being sent to the printers, the MTD team attended a press event at Mazak. The event presented the new machines launched at EMO Milan and highlighted the UK investment in producing new, UK manufactured machine tools. The European Headquarters in Worcester now produces 8 machine models and the appetite to ‘Buy British’ is evident as Mazak has released record sales figures as we enter the final quarter of 2021. Further reinforcing the message of a buoyant return of machine tool sales, a visit to Star uncovered that its new compact SL7 sliding head-turning centre had already yielded over half a dozen UK sales since being introduced at EMO just weeks ago.
The visits were followed by a trip to the FANUC UK Open House where more than 700 engineers had registered to attend. In the light of recent IFR figures (Page 8) that show the UK lagging way behind its European counterparts in the uptake of automation, FANUC is a driving force in delivering the message that manufacturers need to up their game’ in the
global race to be competitive.
The final visit during our ‘press week’ was to the Advanced Engineering Show at the NEC. Despite being reduced to a 2-day event, the halls were a hive of activity and generally, exhibitors were enjoying a high enquiry level and orders were being taken. More importantly, engineers were getting back to the handshaking and face-to-face engagement that Covid had so cruelly snatched from our lives for so long. With such positive attendance at the autumn open houses and exhibitions, we can all certainly look forward to 2022 and the run-in to the MACH exhibition in April.
