Daily Manufacturing News Digest – the industry stories you should be aware of today

Posted on 9 May 2023 by The Manufacturer

Each day The Manufacturer compiles the top manufacturing news stories from around the web. To make your life a little easier, we trawl through all the major trade publications, broadsheets and business magazines to find you the most important manufacturing news each morning. Don't forget to bookmark this page and check back daily.

Factories receive government support to grow the economy, cut emissions and reduce energy costs

Factories producing some of the country’s best-known beers, cereals, soft drinks and cars will receive government support to reduce their energy costs and cut carbon emissions.

Heineken, Kellogg’s, Toyota and Britvic are among businesses across the UK to be awarded a share of £24.3m government funding to help clean up their manufacturing processes and improve their energy efficiency. Read more via The Manufacturer

Factory decline pushes Germany to brink of recession

German industrial output slumped unexpectedly in March, stoking fears of recession in Europe’s biggest economy.

Industrial production declined by 3.4 per cent, reversing a revised 2.1 per cent increase in February and falling far more steeply than the 1.3 per cent that analysts had forecast. Read more via The Times

Industry calls for Royal Commission on Industrial Strategy – Make UK report

Britain’s manufacturers are calling for the establishment of a Royal Commission as a starting point to develop a long term, modern Industrial Strategy which would help provide companies with a vision and a stable environment to invest, access talent and grow their business.

This would be backed by a new Industry Strategy Council to ensure the strategy is monitored by an independent body, while the Cabinet Office should be given responsibility for policy co-ordination across Government. Read more via The Manufacturer

North East well placed to lead batteries charge but investment in skills required, say industry experts

The North East could become the UK centre for electric vehicle battery manufacturing but not before there is serious investment in skills.

That’s the message from two of the region’s most influential figures in the automotive industry as the first session gets under way of a parliamentary inquiry into what is holding back electric vehicle battery production in the UK. Read more via Business Live

New report reveals digital transformation remains a top priority for manufacturers

Manufacturing organisations will continue to grow digitally as 2023 unfolds further, with the sector set to become one of the most transformed industries today as a result, a new report has revealed.

According to Copperberg and Valtech’s The Voice of Digital Leaders in Manufacturing 2023 report, the vast majority of B2B leaders have poised their infrastructure for further digital transformation and are reaching the appropriate maturity level to scale up. Read more via The Manufacturer

Bentley chief’s ‘concern’ over UK’s failure to attract battery investments

The UK’s failure to attract investments from electric vehicle start-ups or large battery makers was “concerning”, the chief executive of luxury-car maker Bentley has warned.

The government needs to deal with energy costs to spur investment and compete with other countries whose incentives are “an order of magnitude more attractive than the UK”, Adrian Hallmark told the Financial Times. Read more via Financial Times

US offshore wind market expanding rapidly, ACP report reveals

The American Clean Power Association (ACP) recently released a comprehensive report on the US offshore wind market, revealing a rapidly growing pipeline of projects across 32 leases totaling 51,377 MW of expected capacity – enough electricity to power the equivalent of more than 20 million homes. Read more via ACP