Engineering group Rolls-Royce has unveiled a deal which should secure 300 highly-skilled nuclear industry jobs at a new factory in South Yorkshire.

The factory will produce components for the first new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset, as part of a £400m deal with French energy giant Areva.

The high-tech parts will be used inside the nuclear reactor.

Manufacturing will take place at a factory which Rolls-Royce hopes to open in Rotherham late next year.

Outline planning permission for the site at Catcliffe has already been given by Rotherham council.

If it gets the final go-ahead Rolls-Royce hopes building work on the facility will start in the second half of this year.

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While 55% of firms do not now outsource upkeep and item management, they designed to investigate a intensity over a subsequent year. A orator told FoodManufacture.co.uk:

“Firms were picking adult business and looking to move in outsourced upkeep workers on a short-term as cover.”

Food and splash manufacturers accounted for about 15% of firms enclosed in a survey, he added.

Nearly half (41%) of firms reported that a stream mercantile meridian had not forced them to postpone vital designed investments in new equipment.

False economy

Nearly 8 in 10 upkeep and engineering managers pronounced they approaching their bill to boost or sojourn a same this year. Matt Benyon, md of EasyFairs UK and Ireland, said: “Businesses are still anticipating it tough, though many realize that slicing behind on upkeep budgets is fake economy.”

More than a third (36%) of firms surveyed pronounced they designed to use their upkeep bill to urge plant capability by augmenting appurtenance efficiency.

Over two-thirds (70%) of respondents pronounced their firm’s directors judged capability to be a categorical magnitude of plant performance. That was followed by downtime (61%) and using costs (42%).

Reflecting those priorities, 55% of firms reported that that their budgets would be spent on predictive upkeep record to “extend plant longevity, urge potency and equivocate catastrophic, dear plant failures”, said the spokesman.

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(RTTNews.com) - Underpinned by transport equipment and food industries, British manufacturing output expanded more-than-expected in December, logging the biggest growth since May. Output figures suggest that the economy remains on the track to recovery.

Manufacturing output grew 1 percent, rebounding from November’s 0.1 percent fall, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday. The increase exceeded the 0.2 percent rise forecast by economists.

As manufacturing output has increased after easing for straight few months, question remains as to whether the sector can sustain its improved performance around the turn of the year, said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

Industrial production grew 0.5 percent month-on-month in December, offsetting last month’s 0.5 percent decrease. Economists had expected only 0.2 percent growth.

The largest contributors to the month-on-month increase in manufacturing output were the production of transport equipment industries, followed by the manufacture of food, beverages and tobacco industries.

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Weetabix is investing £16M in UK processing this year and rolling out a lean production programme across its factories after trialling it at Burton Latimer in Northamptonshire.

“We will spend £16M of collateral in 2012,”

said conduct of production Mike Parsons.

“What we are looking to do is reinstate processes opposite a whole Weetabix estate.”

Parsons assimilated 18 months ago from Heinz, carrying been concerned in a continual alleviation (CI) roll-out. He hired gaunt consultancy Lauras International to analyse opening and advise on areas during Weetabix that could be enhanced. The formula of this helped a organisation win a Company of a Year pretension during Food Manufacture’s 2011 Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards.

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Corby has received its second major jobs boost in a week with the news that at least 40 positions are being created at a £2million factory site.

New chilled pastry company Bakeaway Ltd is opening today at the old Parker’s Fine Foods site in Baird Road, on the Willowbrook East industrial estate.

The company already has a contract to supply the Sainsbury’s chilled pastry range and says there is a “promise of many more” jobs to come.

Negotiations are already under way to forge links to the catering and business sections at Tresham College

It follows an announcement on Monday from the Bradford-based firm Advanced Supply Chain which is about to create 80 jobs at a warehouse in Eismann Way, Corby.

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Supermarket chain Morrisons, the only major multiple retailer to operate its own meat processing factories, has struck a deal to acquire a 9,755m² meat processing facility in Winsford, Cheshire from Vion UK.

The site is a fresh pork and lamb retail packing plant which Morrisons said has the capacity to expand into beef and mince products and increase its existing production. This work was previously carried out at a Morrisons-owned site in Bradford and by third party suppliers.

Morrisons said the jobs of all 300-plus staff in Winsford would be safeguarded and that there is potential to increase the size of the workforce as the business grows. The retailer said the acquisition will give it greater capacity as it continues to expand, and more control over the quality of meat products sold in its stores.

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Norfolk, Buckinghamshire and Cornwall are top hotspots for manufacturing growth with all three counties adding over 1,000 factory jobs since 2006 according to the GMB.

Twenty seven UK regions recorded a boom in manufacturing employment the GMB analysis of an ONS population survey showed.

Star English performers included counties more associated with tourism than manufacturing such as Bournemouth and Greenwich. (more…)

The car manufacturing employment enters the new year with positive news that Jaguar Land Rover is to expand its Merseyside plant to create 1,500 jobs, as a recent report reveals:

Jaguar Land Rover is planning to double the size of its Merseyside factory and create 1,500 new jobs in a major boost to the Coalition’s drive to rebalance the economy.

An expansion of the plant - one of the biggest car manufacturing facilities in the UK - comes amid growing worries over a slowdown in UK industry and the prospects of a double dip recession in the wider economy.

JLR’s Land Rover plant in Halewood is at full capacity producing the new Range Rover Evoque and growing the factory will allow the company to keep up with surging demand for its products.

Sources familiar with the situation say the company is exploring plans to double the size of the plant by developing on surrounding land. This will represent an investment of around £100m, although the proposals are thought to be at a relatively early stage.
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Jenrick Engineering, leading recruitment agency in the automotive industry recently found an article regarding the positive effect 2011 has had on this sector:

Automotive industry experts at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have named 2011 a step-change year for the industry. Based on unprecedented levels of international investment in the UK and long-term commitments to building new and existing vehicles and engines across the country, the prospects for automotive manufacturing are strong.

Through 2011 vehicle manufacturers have committed in excess of £4 billion to projects in the UK, from the development of low carbon technologies to the introduction of all-new models. This high level of investment comes with the added bonus of increased and safeguarded employment for thousands of UK workers, plus millions of pounds of business for UK-based suppliers.

“2011 has been a very significant year for the UK motor industry. We have seen a remarkable series of investment announcements by global vehicle manufacturers with a total of £4 billion of investment promised for the UK, securing new model programmes, production facilities and jobs. Despite the uncertainty within the Eurozone, these decisions demonstrate real confidence in the future of UK manufacturing and its role within a rebalanced economy,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive.

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Job creation continues to increase month on month within the engineering sector as up to 2,500 jobs are to be created in Yorkshire’s burgeoning offshire wind industry, as the article below reveals:

Up to 2,500 jobs will be created in Yorkshire’s burgeoning offshore wind industry following a series of major announcements by energy firms this year, according to new Government research confirming the huge opportunity offered by North Sea wind.

Writing in today’s Yorkshire Post, Conservative Energy Minister Charles Hendry makes clear the Coalition believes “next-generation industries” such as the offshore wind sector are set to give regions like Yorkshire “a real opportunity to thrive again” after decades of industrial decline.

Four massive offshore wind farms are due to be built off the Yorkshire coast over the next decade as the UK pushes forward towards its 30 per cent target for renewable energy by 2020.

The construction and maintenance of the thousands of turbines required is seen as a major economic opportunity for the whole of the East Coast, and the Yorkshire Post is campaigning for the thousands of jobs which will be created to be centred upon this region.

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