A review and preview of the global fastener industry
A wide cross section of global fastener business leaders have contributed their retrospective of 2015 and thoughts on the prospects and challenges for 2016. We asked them to consider not just economic and financial issues but also technology drivers for the fastener industry and to identify priorities for the upcoming year. Here is WASI's article:
Wagener & Simon WASI GmbH & Co KG
Karlheinz Schreiber, managing director
2015 was marked by the development of raw material prices. Importantly for the stainless steel industry, the price of nickel has fallen since the middle of the year, and the raw material prices have generally continued to fall. This has had a massive impact on the purchasing and market prices since September.
The effects of this on production and stock levels at factories manufacturing screws and bolts have been significant – the sales prices have reduced along with the turnover in the second half of the year. The weakness of the euro has prevented an even more drastic price development. A further challenge in 2015 was being able to make sufficient deliveries to embargoed countries such as Russia.
In 2015 it became clear again how important meeting the criteria (goods availability, quality and supply performance) is even when there are external factors that are difficult to influence. We are optimistic for 2016 in regards to the raw material prices rising again, which will have positive effects on turnover. In addition, the industry expects the abolition of the anti-dumping duties in 2017, which may also produce noticeable changes in the coming year.
WASI sees 2016 having active sales and thereby concentrating on customer solutions as being paramount. The focus will continue to be ensuring the security of supply. This means we must continue to work on reducing delivery times to other European countries.
Overall, we are looking forward to the new year with confidence, even when there are sure to be many challenges waiting to be overcome.
Will joined Fastener + Fixing Magazine in 2007 and over the last 15 years has experienced every facet of the fastener sector - interviewing key figures within the industry and visiting leading companies and exhibitions around the globe.
Will manages the content strategy across all platforms and is the guardian for the high editorial standards that the Magazine is renowned.
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