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News Release from: British Stainless Steel Association | Subject: BSSA Annual Luncheon speech
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 April 2006
BSSA Annual Luncheon speech
UK still remains a significant market for stainless steel - the fifth largest in Europe - and there are opportunities for growth.
British Stainless Steel Association Annual Luncheon: Director's Speech My Lord Mayor, Master Cutler, Honoured Guest, Ladies and Gentlemen, The year 2006 is something of a landmark for the Association
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 29 Apr 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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As some of you will know the British Stainless Steel Association was formed in 1992 when the Stainless Steel Fabricators Association extended its scope of membership to all participants in the UK stainless steel industry.
What is perhaps less well known is that the SSFA was formed in 1946, so we can justly say that our organisation is now 60 years old and it should be born in mind that stainless steel itself was only discovered 94 years ago!.
Since 1946 the worldwide production of stainless has risen from half a million tonnes to 25 million tonnes and consumption in the UK has grown to more than 400,000 tonnes.
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It is now inconceivable to imagine a world without stainless steel given its importance in so many different applications: from the process industry, where its corrosion resistance is paramount, to buildings, where it is also chosen for aesthetic reasons, and not to mention its use in cutlery! Nevertheless, despite this history (and the well-known connection between Sheffield and stainless steel) we face real challenges both as an industry and as an Association.
We are all very familiar with the growth in production and consumption in newly developing markets and especially in China and India.
Moreover we have seen the migration of the manufacture of stainless containing products to lower labour cost markets, such as Eastern Europe and Asia, from Western Europe and more especially from the UK.
But the UK still remains a significant market for stainless steel - the fifth largest in Europe - and there are opportunities for growth.
So what are we doing to help? First, a key activity is the provision of technical help and advice provided both by the Stainless Steel Advisory Service and through our website.
In fact we reached another landmark recently when we answered our 20,000th enquiry since the BSSA was re-formed in 2000.
And the range of topics is enormous whether it is the correct grade to use under a particular set of conditions, someone searching for a particular product or questions from the public.
But in addition to these phone calls, increasingly questions are being 'answered' by our website and here the growth in use is extraordinary.
For example, looking at just one measure, technical page requests have grown from 1800 per month in 2003 to 2400 per month in 2004 to 5800 per month in 2005! We are aware also that the website does need some improvement both to its look and in particular to make finding information even easier; plans are under way to address this.
The second area of focus is on training and education and many of you will be familiar with the Stainless Steel Specialist Course which has been the mainstay of our provision in this area.
However, it is clear that a more comprehensive programme would be welcomed by many and work is ongoing to develop the provision of a properly timetabled schedule of open courses.
Members would be able to factor such a programme in to their own plans or where appropriate arrange for in-house seminars.
Areas we will address include a basic introduction to stainless steels aimed at beginners/newcomers to the industry, additional support to those undertaking the Specialist Course and workshops focused on particular end-use sectors.
The fabrication seminar programme will continue with two events this year - the first was held last week in South Wales and the second is being planned.
And for the first time we will hold a lean manufacturing workshop in conjunction with MICE/MetSkill (scheduled for the 8th of June).
Indeed cooperation with other industry support bodies such as MetSkill and NAMTEC will be vital to our success in this area.
The third key part of the work of the Association is market development and encouraging wider use of stainless steel in the UK.
Our Conference held last November looked at both the 'Challenges' and 'Opportunities' facing our industry and focused on some of the key sectors where growth in the use of stainless steel should come from.
Examples included industries such as water, energy (particularly the renewed interest in nuclear power generation) and food processing together with building and construction and especially infrastructure renewal.
The job of the Association is to take forward these examples and identify opportunities for our members.
The water industry is a case in point where undoubtedly more stainless steel could be used particularly for drinking water provision but with a complicated supply chain and understandable caution in using 'new' materials, progress is slow.
Our plan is to hold a water industry workshop where the 'protagonists' will be brought together for what we hope will be a fruitful exchange views and ideas.
The Olympic Games also represent an opportunity for increased use of stainless steel; the BSSA is already very active in promoting the virtues of stainless steel to architects, engineers etc and, for example, delivered more than 50 CPD seminars last year.
We plan to hold a special seminar this autumn targeted at architects, engineers and construction companies involved in the Olympics to reinforce the messages about stainless steel and to make sure they are clear where and how to get help.
So what about the Association itself and what condition is it in?.
Well by its very nature the BSSA is a fragile organisation relying as it does primarily on subscriptions which represent 90% of our income.
The Council would like this reliance to reduce as a proportion and for the income from our products and services to grow from the current 10% to 20%.
This should be feasible over a 2 year period, especially if the ideas for the website and the training and education proposals develop as planned.
But we do need to retain our members and see growth in the numbers both to make the income more secure and to sustain the vitality of the BSSA.
Recommendation by an existing member is the best membership recruitment driver and I do hope you feel that you can make such a recommendation to your industry colleagues.
Nevertheless, I also appreciate that all of you will have views and ideas about what the BSSA should be doing and since the last consultation across the membership was several years ago it is timely to ask you again so I can promise you a questionnaire (as a first step at least) which we will circulate during towards the end of April.
These things can be a pain but please help us by returning it! I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those members who have freely given so much of their time to the various committees and working groups without which the Association would not be able to function.
My thanks also to the Council for their help and support over the past year.
There are some changes with Eddie Kirk, Richard Vick and John Vine who have all been on the Council for some time and given very good support throughout and our special thanks to them.
At the same time we welcome their successors, namely, Bryn Kinsey from Ugine and ALZ, James Hunt of Corus Engineering and Trevor Money of Jordan Manufacturing.
In addition we welcome Alan Partridge of NAMTEC who has been co-opted to the Council.
Finally my personal thanks to the team at the BSSA both full-time and part-time.
There will be one significant change to the team later this year with Roger Crookes deciding to retire.
Roger has been the Technical Adviser and head of the Stainless Steel Advisory Service since the new BSSA was re-formed in 2000.
And not only has he answered most of the 20,000 enquiries with calm and patience, but he has also been key to the development of the website, authoring many of the articles that appear there.
He will undoubtedly be a hard act to follow.
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