India-UK : Collaborating to Succeed
With UK businesses getting increasingly bullish about India and the latter being equally keen to strengthen their trade ties, it gets easier to estimate the immense potential benefits such an engagement entails. A look at the current status of their give and take, particularly in the machine tools sector that points to a bright future.
The frequency of the recent ministerial visits between India and the UK is reflective of the concentrated efforts that are underway to further strengthen the bilateral trade relationship between the two countries.
During 2015-16, the UK ranked 12th in the list of India’s top 25 trading partners and has been the largest G20 investor in India since 2000. India, at the same time, is the third-largest investor in the UK; Indian companies invest more in the UK than the rest of the EU combined. There are more than 800 Indian companies operating in the UK that employ more than 110,000 people.
Import-Export of machine tools
According to James Selka, CEO, Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), India is a significant market for UK machine tool manufacturers, and in 2016 it was the 7th largest destination with shipments worth £14.7 million (3.4 percent of total UK machine tool exports).”
“The latest data, which covers the period from January to September 2017, shows a small fall in exports, but this trend could easily be reversed by a good end to the year as the fall we saw in 2017 was largely because of strong start to 2016 and the underlying trend for 2017 has seen a general improvement over recent levels,” added Selka.
However, the imports of machine tools from India to the UK are not significant, amounting to only £1.5 million in 2016 and £1.1 million for the first 3 quarters
of 2017.
Trade in other parts of the industry is not significant either, although India did have a small trade surplus with the UK for cutting tools in 2016 with imports from India valued at £2.1 million, while exports from the UK to India were worth just under £1 million. This is partly balanced by a small surplus for the UK in trade in tool/work-holding equipment – here UK exports to India were worth £1.4 million in 2016, while imports were valued at £0.7 million.
Knowledge sharing
When asked about the latest technologies in the metal forming sector in the United Kingdom that could help the Indian customer to enhance its productivity, Selka illustrated some of the research being undertaken in the UK right now.
“There are many institutions and companies within the UK working on the latest metal forming technology, the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) in Strathclyde are leading the way in this. They cover the whole lifecycle from material testing and characterisation to testing final products. Some of their recent projects around forming include new lubrication systems for hot forming, investigating new technology for hydro-forming and developing new test techniques to rapidly assess shear formability,” he informed.
“The University of Nottingham are also doing excellent work, they are developing new forming processes for ‘hybrid’ materials. They are also doing work around modelling and simulation and process optimisation of forming processes and around material characterisation (i.e. the better you understand your material the better you can simulate it),” added Selka.
Indian-UK collaboration in machine manufacturing
According to him, manufacturing in a joint venture can often make sense for companies looking to access new markets. Bringing local expertise and knowledge can be a benefit when trying to establish a presence for the first time. Making sure the partners understand each other and are both clear about what they want to get out of the process is very important as is ensuring that the ownership of the intellectual property created by the deal is distributed fairly.
MACH 2018 and what India should expect of it
Organized and hosted by MTA, MACH is the UK’s premier event for engineering-based manufacturing technologies. Taking place from April 9-13, 2018, the show is poised to be the destination of choice for engineers and manufacturers, bringing together the best of UK manufacturing under one roof, to see live working equipment.
The MTA and the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), have partnered to put together a unique feature to demonstrate cost-effective adaption of Industry 4.0 Technologies at MACH 2018.
“We think this feature will be of great interest for visitors from all over the world. The two of us are staging a joint showcase of cost-effective solutions for the adaption and integration of Industry 4.0 technologies into SME manufacturing businesses,” said Selka.
“We understand the cost constraints that SME businesses face; it is important to let companies know that Industry 4.0 technology is accessible to them. You can take an outdated machine and retrofit sensors to it allowing you to get real-time data and to detect through-put fault. It will be really useful to businesses to be shown some of the things you can do to the installed base that can make a difference,” he explained.
These solutions could be of major help to the Indian manufacturing sector since SMEs account for over 95 percent of establishments and over 80 percent of jobs. Major thrust is being to strengthen the SME sector, it being the backbone of the Indian economy. The sector’s exposure to advanced global trends and the cost-effective ways to adopt them can, therefore, be of high importance to India.
P K Chatterjee
Senior Correspondent
Magic Wand Media Inc
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