Manufacturing Q&A: with Myerson Solicitors and Steuler Group

The modern manufacturing landscape is rapidly transforming, influenced by many factors ranging from technological advancements and the ever-evolving socio-political climate, to an increasing emphasis on sustainable practices.

With the European Union (EU) being at the forefront of many of these changes, EU-based manufacturers are adapting, innovating, and looking towards a future of sustainable and efficient production.

Today, we delve into these issues in an enlightening Q&A session with a key industry player: The Steuler Group, a multi-national corporation at the vanguard of manufacturing innovation.

Through this discussion with Jörg Borkowsky, Head of Corporate Development at Steuler Group, we aim to shed light on how technology, global events, and sustainability initiatives are shaping the manufacturing sector, and understand the approaches leading companies like Steuler are adopting to navigate this ever-changing terrain.

In our industry, we see many efforts in how manufacturers around the globe try to improve their operations and reduce their CO2 footprint.

Everybody is working on improvements of the durability of products under harsh conditions, such as heat, acids, and abrasion, reducing the environmental impact and increasing the percentage of recycled ingredients, which is a continuous process.

Since we are a manufacturer, we know that we need to innovate continuously.

We do so by improving customer processes and developing this together with them.

If it comes to the Ukraine war, the Covid crisis, the raw material dependencies and so on, EU manufacturers can only take notice and try to cope with the circumstances.

We have decided not to apply our own moral "rules" or add our own political measures against countries or world regions.

We value and appreciate – as long as there is no legal obligation to stop us – any trustworthy and reliable business partner, no matter where and under which political system they are working. And we keep our promises.

We know that delivery times back and forth have increased and that governments on both sides of the channel seem to think that customs improve the well-being of their people.

Otherwise, we appreciate the continued good and trustworthy collaboration between companies that want to work in an environment without unnecessary obstacles.

However, we react in some areas where, e.g., the free-works costs of deliveries from Italy have remained the same while such costs of imports from the UK have increased.

In many cases, the impact is insignificant.

There has also been a benefit: because of Brexit, it became more interesting for us to invest locally in the UK market, which we recently did. 

We have heavily invested in kilns that consume – depending on the products – up to 50% less energy per ton.

We also have invested in a 3.1-hectare photovoltaic field, which produces a large portion of the electricity we need from sunlight.

Both measures have already been completed, not just planned.

Again, we believe that this demonstrates our commitment both environmentally and economically.