“Last week our CEO, Paul Jacobs, attended a briefing lunch at the House of Lords to discuss the ongoing challenge of unprecedented energy costs affecting the surface treatment sector. The lunch, hosted by Lord Whitby, was a forum for representatives from both the surface treatment sector and the heat treatment sector, to outline to MP’s and BEIS the challenges being faced around energy supply and pricing. Currently surface treatment businesses are typically paying between 17 and 25% on energy as a percentage of their annual turnover with the heat treatment sector being hit even harder, yet we are not included as an energy intensive sector under the ETII scheme. Moreover, wholesale energy prices have softened in recent months, yet energy providers are still charging at inflated prices based on todays quoted rates. We need the government to act now to support this critical part of the supply chain and regulate the energy providers or risk UK manufacturing becoming increasingly fragile and uncompetitive against our global counterparts. SWMF will continue to support the Surface Engineering Association – SEA, in achieving some positive outcomes for the sector as long as the Government and more specifically the treasury listen and consider our situation and the threat to manufacturing as a whole. The next steps are for the SEA to collate its members evidence into a factual document to be submitted to the treasury for review and hopefully their acceptance”.
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