The road to recovery is always a prolonged process, but the latest figures from the ONS suggest we are witnessing somewhat of a V-shaped bounce back. Employment rates have increased for the sixth successive month with an additional 197,000 finding work in May and job vacancies are now only marginally below pre-pandemic levels. GDP still remains 3% below pre-pandemic levels, but it is recovering every month and furlough claimants have fallen from 19.9% in January to below 6.5%.
In the machine tool industry, reports are extremely positive. Many leading brands are witnessing sales levels that outperform pre-Covid levels by a considerable measure. Whilst the recovery for consumables such as cutting tools, cutting fluids and the like, may be more of a mixed bag – this can somewhat be attributed to the balance of the industry sectors they specialise in. This leads us to our aerospace sector report…
So many businesses have seen the long-term contract security of the aerospace industry as the ‘golden goose’, but with most airlines a long way from running at pre-Covid capacity, recovery in this sector will take longer. In fact, Airbus is expecting production to reach ‘rate 45’ (45 aircraft per month) by the end of the year and a return to pre-pandemic levels of ‘rate 60’ at some point between 2022 and 2023. You can read more in Will Stirling’s interview with MAA Chief Executive on page 14.
In the run-up to this issue, Rolls-Royce announced an £80m investment in developing energy storage solutions that will enable aircraft to undertake zero-emission flights, creating around 300 jobs.
Another announcement came from Leonardo Helicopters that is creating a new 20,000m2 warehousing facility in Yeovil. You may think a warehouse isn’t much to shout about, but if you read our aerospace report, you’ll discover it’s part of a wider strategy to develop rotary-wing aircraft that will explore UK supply chain opportunities. Like the automotive sector, the aero industry is rapidly evolving its R&D to meet long-term environmental goals. In this issue, we also have this covered with great features from the AMRC and the TWI. So, take a break and see what you can learn from this issue.
