The forthcoming show at Hillhead represents a perfect platform to promote Irish excellence and innovation in manufacturing and engineering, so it is not surprising more than 40 companies from Northern Ireland alone will be there to demonstrate their products and services.
Collectively, these and other locally headquartered companies have built up a customer base that extends to over 100 countries around the world and together they employ more than 4,000 people whose expertise
and experience are the envy of many – and you can read more about them in our specially extended preview of Hillhead in this issue.
The fact that the show to be held in June was a sell-out weeks ago is certainly indicative of the state of health of our industry; yes, there are challenges yet to be overcome, but there’s plenty of business being done across many sectors, not just in manufacturing. Take Plant Hire, for example.
We report in this issue on some record breaking deals.
The construction sector, too, continues to show signs of improving, but difficulties remain, with a distinct shortage of skilled people, many of them lost during the recession, and exacerbated by the fact that it is not easy to encourage new recruits to the industry. As QPANI’s Gordon Best declares, ‘unless we get serious about infrastructure development and maintenance investment and we create multi year budgets for maintenance with ring fenced allocations tied to an infrastructure plan then young people, and particularly their parents, will never see the Construction Industry in all its forms as an attractive occupation to build your career and future on.’
Another area of some concern surrounds the forthcoming vote on whether the UK should stay in or leave the European Union. How will the outcome impact on construction materials suppliers and manufacturers here? It’s not a question that is easy to answer, so we’ll all have to wait to see.
Meanwhile, on a brighter note, preperations are well underway for our Plant, Construction and Quarry Awards 2016, so now is the time to start thinking about your participation because we would love to see you there! There are loads of different categories that you can enter – all you need to know is outlined elsewhere in this edition.
Please click the link below to
download the May-June 2016 issue of Plant & Civil Engineer Magazine.
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