Chief Executive's Report 2001/2002

At the beginning of November, with year-to-date losses of £237k – including redundancy costs of £102k – the prospect of an eventual out-turn close to break-even seemed remote.

 
Yet the recovery from such a parlous position demonstrates once again our ability to respond quickly to adverse circumstances and I am thankful that we have a team with the commitment and enthusiasm to make such a turnaround possible. In this particular case I believe we began to benefit from the strategic investments associated with the repositioning of Cti, and I am confident that progressively greater returns will be realised in the months and years ahead for both Cti and its Members, about which more later.

 
Despite closures, mergers and acquisitions, we maintained membership levels much higher than might have been expected and actually on target in the UK. However, the dire conditions prevailing in the USA resulted in a reduction in membership there. Noteworthy success in recruiting new Members from the UK investment casting and light alloy sub-sectors take us closer to Council's ambition of achieving a balanced membership of ferrous and non-ferrous casting producers.

 
Throughout the year, the Working Groups set up by the Research Committee to specify the research needs of the industry's sub-sectors – investment casting, iron, steel, copper and light alloy respectively – developed programmes of activity which were fed into the Research Committee. By ensuring Cti’s research programmes are responsive to Members wishes, the inputs from the Working Groups, Research Committee and others are an invaluable precursor to the lengthy and competitive process of securing support from the European Commission.

This is, by and large, the only way of financing the R&D effort prescribed by Members and I am very optimistic that our research team will continue to build on the considerable success they’ve achieved to date.

 
The new vacuum melting facility was successfully commissioned during the year (and not without a few teething troubles!). While the total investment of nearly £1m was part-funded through a project on titanium castings, there has been considerable interest in its attendant capabilities for development activity relating to castings in superalloys and special steels.

 
Combined with new aluminium vacuum casting technology aimed at enhancing mechanical properties of thin-walled components, our emerging capability in high technology materials is consistent with the repositioning strategy initiated by Council as long ago as 1998.

Council meetings throughout the past year reaffirmed this strategy, with three specific aims being prescribed:

• to achieve 'best-in class' status in European cast metals research;
• to develop world-class prototyping capabilities and facilities;
• to promote new applications of castings in advanced technology sectors such as aerospace, defence, motorsport and medical.
  

In addition to the development of EU bids, the formulation of several proposals designed to underpin attainment of these aims was achieved through close co-operation with Yorkshire Forward (the Regional Development Agency), the Objective 1 Programme Directorate in South Yorkshire and the DTI. Progress on a key element of the overall plan - development of a new 4500m2 building on the proposed Advanced Manufacturing Park in South Yorkshire - was constrained by a number of issues. Towards the end of the financial year, however, activity accelerated as many of these issues were resolved by Yorkshire Forward. The 2002/3 financial year may well see firming up of proposals which could result in Cti co-locating with the new Corus Technology Centre, TWI (The Welding Institute), AMRC (the University of Sheffield/Boeing initiative) and NAMTEC – the National Metals Technology Centre, a new organisation of which Cti is a founding partner along with TWI, CBM (Confederation of British Metalforming) and UK Steel Association

 
I am firmly of the view that the future for Cti holds exceptional promise. This is not only a consequence of the foresight of Council but also the goodwill of our ‘shareholders’, all those Members who continue to support us despite the hardship their own businesses face. It is only through the individual and collective contributions of Members that we are so well placed, not just to meet present needs but also to create future opportunities. Rest assured we do not take this for granted.

Mike Ashton, Cti Chief Executive