Week 38 in Manufacturing News

Annual Investments in Robots Rose to World Record $16.5 Billion; US manufacturing production rebounds strongly in August and article about No Deal Brexit and UK Manufacturing.

US manufacturing production rebounds strongly in August

• U.S. manufacturing output increased more than expected in August.
• The outlook for factories remains weak, however, against the backdrop of trade tensions and slowing global economies.
• Manufacturing production rose 0.6% last month after an unrevised 0.4% drop in July, the Federal Reserve said.
• Capacity utilization, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, increased to 75.7% in August from 75.4% in July.

Source and video: CNBC.

No Deal Brexit and UK Manufacturing

In terms of goods and manufacturing, the immediate impact of No Deal would be felt keenly by manufacturing sectors which operate fine-grained ‘just-in-time’ (JIT) production, operations and logistics systems across Europe.

Longer term the effects of No Deal could be worse than the short term. Annual UK auto production could be over 500,000 units lower in the second half of the next decade than under a managed, orderly Brexit Deal.

Source: University of Birmingham.

Industry pumps £30 billion into economy

UK food processors pump £30bn into the economy, representing 15.1% of manufacturing output, according to an analysis produced by Santander and manufacturers’ organisation Make UK.

Source: Food Manufacture.

Annual Investments in Robots Rose to World Record $16.5 Billion

Robot shipments are expected to jump 39% from 2018 to 2022 from a record annual sales level of $16.5 billion last year, according to the World Robotics report.

More than a third of global installations were in China and the top five countries hold 74% of the market. Japan, Korea, U.S and Germany round out this group. China’s investment in robots reached $5.4 billion last year.

Source: Industry Week.