Rutland Plastics has been featured in leading media outlets over the summer. The first was a visit from Sky News’ Gurpreet Narwan who came in to film a piece to discuss the latest GDP figures and what that means for the UK economy and the manufacturing sector in particular.
The second was an article for the Financial Times. Our Director, Stuart Johnston, was interviewed about carbon and energy prices and the impact this has on manufacturing both domestically and within the EU. The drop in the cost of carbon has pushed energy prices down because gas-fired power stations, which account for the highest proportion of Britain's electricity generation at just under 40%, pay less to pollute. Lower electricity and carbon costs would give factories and power generators an incentive to increase output in the UK. Manufacturers say their UK factories still suffer other disadvantages against peers in continental Europe due to extra costs they have to pay on energy bills, notably higher connections costs and levies to pay for green energy policies. Network access charges and policy costs in the UK are still higher compared to the average in the EU meaning that industrial electricity prices are still not competitive with the European ones. The relatively high proportion of gas in Britain's generation mix has historically contributed to higher wholesale electricity prices than in other European countries. Carbon prices are also still above their long-term average, having initially surged during the pandemic. The FT article can be found in full here.
Stuart will also be taking part in a panel discussion on reshoring and contract manufacturing at Interplas on 26th September. The discussion, chaired by the British Plastics Federation, will look at the challenges and opportunities of the post-Brexit, post-COVID manufacturing landscape. How much work was re-shored in recent years? Will it stay here? And what is the model for contract manufacturing going forward? Stuart and the rest of the team will be at Interplas at the NEC from 26th-28th September on stand A18.
