ISO 45001 accreditation

PMM are proud to announce that we have achiedved certification in ISO 45001 for Health and Safety. We take our Health and Safety procedures very seriously.

ISO 45001 is designed to prevent work-related injury and ill-health and to provide safe and healthy workplaces.

An effective occupational health and safety management system helps us to protect and enhance our most important asset, our people, to drive business excellence.

Groundbreaking for Haitian production plant in Serbia

Groundbreaking for Haitian production plant in Serbia

Haitian International is expanding its production and logistics network in Europe and investing in the construction of a modern plant with a total area of 250,000 square meters at its site in Ruma, Serbia. The plant is scheduled to go into operation in the first quarter of 2025.

With this investment in the center of the Balkan Peninsula, Haitian International is setting a further milestone in its global strategy. It involves building new infrastructures and sites to strengthen international competitiveness in the long term. The company also wants to position itself more crisis-proof – resilient against rising transport costs and logistics congestion. The small town of Ruma is a central transport hub for the main axes of important logistics connections in Europe.

On April 20, 2023, at 10:08 a.m. European time, the groundbreaking ceremony was held at the future production site in Ruma, marking the start of the first construction phase – the foundation. Construction work on the building can begin in the fall. 
Phase 1 in the fall will cover 161,000 sqm including plant hall A with 59,000 sqm  along with a 3-story office and employee building with an in-house canteen. According to the current plan, the plant is scheduled to go into operation in 2025.

Picture: In addition to the Haitian project team, representatives of the government of Ruma also took part in the ceremony Mrs. Aleksandra Ciric (Mayor), Mr. Dusan Ljubisic (head of the municipal administration), Mrs. Nada Hars ( head of the department for urban planning and construction), Vladislava Pović – (Director of Public Company for planning and construction), Mrs. Jasmina Stojanac Zoric (head of the department for local economic development), Sun Yiming (Project leader and CEO of Haitian International Germany).

The location is a further important step towards global resilience and the city of Ruma offers all the advantages of a central production site. It is located directly in the transport hub for the main axis of important European logistics connections. The construction of the production base in Ruma will enable Haitian to directly and efficiently serve the European market, closely link the markets in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, continuously improve local delivery and supply capacity and, last but not least, optimize local service in Serbia.

“Ruma is ideally located for us as Haitian International to directly supply Mars and Jupiter machines to our customers’ markets in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and to support them with local services. In Serbia, the Haitian team has already built up a large customer base, which the new plant will enable us to serve even better in the future,” affirms Sun Yiming, CEO of Haitian International Germany. 

“Highly efficient synergies are created throughout the entire production depth, which we make directly available to our customers, for example Haitian Smart Solutions for automation solutions, MES systems or individual manufacturing systems for lean production. In addition, we will offer the local customers with a broad portfolio for its manufacturing. Everything from a single source,” says Zhang Bin, the deputy CEO of Haitian Group.

Smart flexible solutions

Haitian International has developed sophisticated machine and system technologies with intelligent motion and process control (Motion Plus).

The lights are going out all over Europe

The lights are going out all over Europe

Yes, yes, okay, the heading for this may have been stolen from a great statesman, but it did strike a chord with me, when I heard it on the news.

My “Energy Elephant” piece was written from a position of bewilderment about the lack of emphasis being placed on the energy crisis.  It prompted many discussions, inside and outside the manufacturing sector, and I have been bombarded with information ever since. So much so, that I thought I should put it together here and throw it out there, to further the debate.

I confess that my flabber was gasted, by some of my conversations.  One of our country’s leading moulders, confessed their energy usage is “criminal”.  They run 20 year old, fixed and variable pump machines ,which are massively inefficient “but if it ain’t broke, we won’t swap it”.  I withhold the names to protect the innocent, but their energy bill has just increased by more than £2,000,000 per year. I feel the need to write (Million) like the football results, when it is so extraordinary.  Who could help them with this?

I called Dr Robin Kent, apologised for my intrusion, and asked if I was going mad.  He’s been in the plastics industry since the 70’s and has been beating the energy drum for decades.  He confirmed my insanity was as genuine as my findings, but warned it was a lot weirder than I knew.

So I wrote to my MP, because I’m sure I’ve heard that’s a thing people do in times of crisis.  My email was sent to the Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).  Have no fear, they told me,  we have the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.  £289 (million) of funding, aimed at, as the name suggests, Transforming Industrial Energy.  Phase one was run as a competition, (I kid you not) and after 2 years, 29 grants were awarded for feasibility studies.  Now I’m a patient man, but at this rate the “transformation” will be glacial, and we all know glaciers are already struggling with global warming.

So who else might help?  The Carbon Trust, thought I.  Alas they “no longer have any Government funding to assist industry”, but they advised me to keep an eye on my local authority as, “pockets of funding pop up every once in a while”.  Hardly grounds for long term planning.

Maybe I shouldn’t worry about oil or gas prices, after all, we are an island and we have wind power.  Well apparently that’s not quite as simple either.  We do have magnificent wind farms, on shore and off shore, we are the envy of the world, allegedly.  But one tiny issue, I learned that we can’t store the power the farms generate.   So if we don’t need energy on a windy day, we turn off the turbines.  Think about that next time you drive past a static wind turbine.  Even cavemen knew to collect dry wood in the summer, to burn in the cold wet winters. How did we fail to close that loop?

Now, this week I was reassured by The Times Business Correspondent,  Dominic O’Connell, that the lights will not go out this winter and we won’t be told to share baths.  Then he explained the solution is that industrial energy users will “be forced” to shut down production, or work reduced  hours.  Oh well, that’s a relief. I’m sure the industrial workers who are struggling to pay their bills, will be delighted at a shorter working week.

My conclusions are, that UK Manufacturing PLC has a tricky winter ahead and massive historic investment lethargy to overcome.  The technologies are out there, the Super Deduction tax gives a 25% discount on new equipment and this is the quickest return on investment our sector has ever seen.  We have one customer who has paid for a new 250 ton machine, in just 12 months, on electricity savings alone.  It’s a scary new world. Turning off the lights all over Europe will not solve this issue, as Dr Kent has documented.   We need to do more, and we need to do it quickly.

Carl Reeve 3.08.22

BP&R-Visit the PMM team

BP&R-Visit the PMM team

David Gray, Mandy Obrien, Veronica Edmunds, Paul Hulin, Carl Reeve

 

It was a pleasure to meet with Mandy and David form BP&R recently at PMM’s head quarters in Quainton. There were some good discussions around the current energy crisis, sharing ideas on how we can bring awareness to the UK’s moulders.