THE UK CAR INDUSTRY - DON'T MENTION BREXIT

There is a fascinating battle playing out in the media about Honda and whether or not the closure of the Swindon plant was Brexit related.  It's an important battle in what will probably be a very long war and we should study the present media coverage carefully. On the one hand even some employees think it is related with one describing Brexit as 'idiocy of epic proportions' (HERE) and an editorial in The Guardian (HERE) says it is 'partly' to blame.  The company itself say the closure is 'unrelated' to Brexit.

HONDA - NO MORE PROJECT FEAR FOR SWINDON

Honda is set to announce the closure of its Swindon factory in 2022 according to this report on Reuters (HERE) with the loss of 3500 jobs.  On ITV News last night the reporter was told it would 'rip the heart out of the community'.  Swindon voted 54.7% to leave and I assume some of them would have worked at Honda or at one of the companies that relied on the Japanese factory.  I wonder what they're thinking today?

BUSINESS EXODUS GATHERS PACE

A couple of days ago I drafted up an item about business finally beginning to clear its throat on the dangers of Brexit. But I didn't post it because I could see The Guardian had produced more or less the same story (HERE). It starts with James Dyson, one of the idiots who urged Brexit on. His company has announced it is moving HQ to Singapore (HERE). Nothing to do with Brexit his CEO says but the timing is very odd isn't it?  The report puts his profits at an astronomical £1 billion on a turnover of £4 billion or 25%! Now we know why his prices are so high. It isn't quality you pay for, it's mostly profit. Profits will now be taxed in Singapore. This is Dyson's way of helping post Brexit UK.

BREXIT CENTRAL NO DEALERS

In the frantic run up to the meaningful vote, an avalanche of propaganda on a no deal Brexit is coming from Brexit Central although they seem to be trying to convince themselves more than anybody else. Their argument is that not only will there be no problems, but that it is actually a desirable outcome. One article (HERE) is from Steve Baker, the former DEXEU minister, who tells us the EU isn't a land of milk and honey and we'll be better off out of it. Needless to say all the experts disagree.

JOB LOSSES AT JLR AND FORD - BREXIT NOT TO BLAME?

The job losses announced yesterday at JLR and Ford (HERE) and (HERE) are obviously highly regrettable and probably not wholly down to Brexit. I expect we will hear a lot in the coming years of job losses and factory closures that 'are nothing to do with Brexit'. However, I didn't expect that narrative to come from The Guardian.

BUSINESS BREXITEERS ON BREXIT CENTRAL

I have always been convinced that Brexit will be bad for business and the economy although I've been surprised how slow the effects have been to surface which has allowed leavers to keep up the 'scaremongering' narrative whenever official forecasts point to a negative impact. However, reading the Brexit Central website occasionally I am heartened by the paucity of credible supporters among the business community. 

WILL BREXIT TRANSFORM INDUSTRY? I DON'T THINK SO.

Larry Ellison writes for The Guardian occasionally and he had a piece last week (HERE) suggesting we "overdo" our respect for the EU and that we can "flourish" outside it. He talks about the pessimism and unwarranted gloom in The Treasury forecasts and that Brexit "is an opportunity to do things differently, to exploit the policy space that Brexit affords and tackle the structural problems that have plagued the economy for decades".

 

A ROBOTIC RESPONSE

Reuters have a report about industrial robotics in the UK (HERE) although there is a bit of spin in it from the Bank of England. The basic data apparently comes from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) 2018 report, the executive summary of which you can read HERE. Reuters seem to have used a blog post by the BoE to show that sales of robots is now rising quickly in the UK as the labour market tightens and manufacturers are forced to invest in automation. On the surface it looks promising for a nation that is shortly to relaunch itself on the global market. But dig a little under the surface and it is not quite what it seems. In fact it's grim.

THE CAR INDUSTRY - ARE THE WARNINGS HAVING AN IMPACT

I wrote the other day about the UK car industry (HERE). Now we see manufacturers beginning to make their feelings known. First it was Ralf Speth of Jaguar Land Rover who told the PM a  few days ago they depended on, "free, frictionless, seamless logistics" (HERE). This week we had a flurry of others. Before the referendum they were rather quiet but now they are singing together like a Welsh male voice Choir.

THE CAR INDUSTRY - THE LAST CHANCE SALOON HAS GONE

Greg Clark, the Business Secretary has said the UK would forever regret losing its status as a world leader in car making (HERE). How easily people forget the British car industry was rescued by membership of the EU in 1973. The government pamphlet sent to every household before the 1975 referendum talked on page 5 (HERE) about Europe having "vast resources of skill, experience and inventiveness". We probably didn't realise quite how much of this would be needed to rescue British car manufacturing, which was on its knees at the time. 

FRICTIONLESS TRADE

The UK car industry's main trade body, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), met EU representatives in Brussels yesterday to try and spell out the damage that a no-deal Brexit would cause to UK car manufacturing (HERE).  The SMMT's Chief Executive, Mike Hawes said in a press statement that "the auto sector would not work if there were delays at the border, adding that this would require car makers to have unfeasibly large warehouses to store components".

ANOTHER WARNING FROM THE CAR INDUSTRY

The Birmingham Mail (HERE) carries a report of what Ralf Speth, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover apparently told Theresa May yesterday when she visited the West Midlands and announced £100 million of government money to "ensure the UK remains a world leader in the design and manufacture of "zero-emission" vehicles". I am not sure we're the leader at the moment so "remaining" the leader might be a bit hard.

THE UK CHEMICALS INDUSTRY

Anyone in the chemical business might be very interested in this piece HERE. It's about how the government intends to go about handling the UK leaving the EU's REACH regime for chemicals. This is the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals and it covers thousands of chemicals used in Europe. According to George Peretz QC this is going to cause huge problems if we leave the EU.

BMW AND THE UK CAR INDUSTRY

This announcement that BMW is to invest a billion euros in a new factory in Hungary (HERE) will go down well in Cowley I'm sure. Oliver Zipse, a BMW board member said, “Our new plant in Hungary will also be able to manufacture both combustion and electrified BMW models – all on a single production line,” A year ago they said they were to build the new electric version of the mini in the UK (HERE).

JAGUAR JOIN THE FRAY with more warnings of job losses

Jaguar Land Rover has entered the fray about frictionless trade (HERE), (HERE) and (HERE) with the threat that they may have to leave the UK if "the UK leaves the single market" according to The Guardian. This is perhaps not quite accurate since the Birmingham Mail (HERE) quotes the Chief Executive, Dr Ralf Speth as saying:

THE JOHNSON-LONGWORTH ANTI BUSINESS AXIS

Boris Johnson is a fool who has accidentally found himself at the centre of government. He is like a slightly more animated and colourful version of Chauncey Gardner in the Peter Sellers film Being There. A man of seriously limited intellectual ability, except with words, he went into politics after a bit of journalism showed he could write amusing but entirely fictional Euro sceptic articles. People took him seriously because of HOW he wrote and not for WHAT he wrote. And he appeared to be witty and interesting on TV shows like Have I Got News For You. But now in a position of power his shortcomings are painfully clear and the harmless fool has become a dangerous one. 

AIRBUS AND BRITISH EXCEPTIONALISM

I noted some interesting comments by the former Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, who unexpectedly resigned last week, after he had accused Airbus of "hyperbole" over the Brexit risk assessment they published recently (HERE).  In some interviews someone must have mentioned a move to China although it's not in the press release (HERE) or the assessment itself. Anyway, Davies is reported as saying:

MORE CAR INDUSTRY WOES

This article on the Politico website should be interesting for David Davis who thought the German car industry would be banging on the door of the German Chancellor to ensure Britain got a special deal (HERE). The report seems to show German industry is far more focused on keeping the single market together.

COLD TURKEY IS COMING SOON

A little while ago I pointed out that Guido Fawkes (HERE) had a blog post: Eurotunnel:Don't buy the scaremongering - trying to suggest all the warnings of chaos at Dover were unfounded. He used a single page from GetLink's (the tunnel's owner) presentation to company shareholders which actually confirmed the warnings (the scaremongering) that extra "border processing" might  be needed.

A BLEAK BREXIT FUTURE FOR THE CAR INDUSTRY

The car industry is beginning to sound the alarm loud and clear. The industry's trade body, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) warns the government is putting 860,000 jobs at risk and says "at a minimum" we need to stay in the customs union as well as securing a deal that includes all the single market benefits (HERE). This isn't the first time the SMMT has issued warnings and it remains to be seen if it has any more effect than previous ones.