Jonathon Harker
If you've had a busy month and you're looking for a handy summary of the month's headlines in the fastener, tools and related industries, then help is at hand...
- Trump & Far East manufacturing
What a difference a month makes – 30 days ago Trump was a mere hopeful in the presidential race. By 9th November Trump’s role as North America’s 45th president was confirmed, leading to speculation over whether he would make good on his international trading promises. Most seismic amongst these would be his pledge to add a 45% surcharge on goods exported from the fastener hotbed of the Far East. Read more here. - EU anti-dumping shake-up
This month the EU outlined how it was going to make changes to calculating anti-dumping duties in order to tackle “significant market disruptions” – another move set to impact on the fastener, tool and many other markets. Read more here. - TR Fastenings expands in Spain with new facility in Barcelona
There's a brand spanking new logistics and customer technical support resource in Barcelona for TR Fastenings, which has seen the automotive market become an important growth-driver for the business. Read more here - TIMco fixes up distribution deal with Dragons’ Den success story
GripIt fixings had a triumphant visit to Dragons' Den and now the brand has walked away with a new distribution deal with TIMco. Read more here. - Self-clinching fasteners are driving growth in the market
November saw research firm Research and Markets state that self-clinching fasteners are among the reasons why the global industrial fasteners market is set to grow at a CAGR of 4.05% by 2020. Read more here. - Builders merchants & DIY outlets:
Of particular interest to the many distributors serving the builders merchants sector, there’s been some significant moves in the market, concerning Bunnings, Grafton, MKM and Nicholls:
#1 Large independent merchant group MKM is now up for sale, with a view to further expansion. There's more on the story here.
#2 Bunnings is shaking up the UK home improvement market and we’ll get the first proper insight into that in February, in a city called St Albans.
#3 Nicholls opened its largest single site yet, a 40,000 sq ft whopper in Bicester.
#4 Grafton bought another fixings, tool & ironmongery business in the Netherlands. - UN calls for reduced tariffs on 'green goods'
With many industry companies supplying components for green industries, there will no doubt be considerable support for calls to drop tariffs on 'green goods' to help transfer green technology into the developing world, made at this month's United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Calls to reduce tariffs may be out of step with the current climate, arguably, but you can read more on the topic here.
And finally, it would be remiss of us to neglect mentioning our brand new enhanced digital magazine. Take a look here.
Was there something we missed in this snapshot of the business? Let us know at jonathon@torque-expo.com
