Insight

NEVIB, the Dutch fastener distributors association, recently appointed a new board of directors with the aim of continuing to service its members on all issues relevant to the daily business of a fastener distributor.

In 2023 NEVIB said goodbye to its first chairman, Robert Klaassen, who was the driving force behind the association and helped it expand to the organisation it is today – together with Johan Dewandeleer and Niek Veldhuizen. Incumbent Board Member Arnoud Booij was elected as the new chairman, with Bart Veldhuizen of Hoenderdaal Fasteners as a new member and Vincent van Dijk remaining secretary.  

“NEVIB provides a wide package of services, including information and intelligence gathering, monitoring of public policy and product quality, technical issues, lobbying, PR, etc. Our members also appreciate the networking we provide,” mentions NEVIB. “We meet at least once a year, usually at the premises of a member company. We then discuss the latest market developments, the regulatory issues that affect us, as well as other topics that are relevant to our business.”

NEVIB’s rapid alert services also enables it to quickly inform members about topics such as the anti-dumping duty procedures, the Russian steel import ban, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) regulation, as well as a variety of other topics. “We address these issues as NEVIB, but also through the overall EU level association EFDA, which has been instrumental in mitigating the negative impact of these measures.”

The main topic for NEVIB and its members over the last six months has been CBAM. “It is really bad that due to vague last minute lobbying by 3^rd parties, the CBAM obligation, which is designed for raw materials, was ruled also applicable to processed products like fasteners,” states NEVIB. “We continue to lobby for fasteners to be exempt, and in the meantime EFDA has worked hard to explain this very complex and technical regulation to SMEs like our members. EFDA has also introduced a model tool that will hopefully help exporters to properly calculate their CO₂ emissions. This is crucial, as in a few years importers will have to pay for the emissions that are created. As the fees will be a substantial part of the total product cost, firms that can evidence low CO₂ emissions will have a competitive advantage over their peers.”

A major challenge for NEVIB’s members currently, as well as the wide Dutch market across all industries, is the lack of labour. “Our society is aging fast and fewer people have to work for more non-active people,” explains NEVIB. “This means vacancies in logistics are hard to fill, especially as working in the fastener sector is less popular than working in other sectors or doing remote ‘influencing’ from the beach on a tropical island. Our members have looked to invest heavily in automation to try and counteract the lack of labour, but even so these systems still need supervising, back-up, etc, so there will always be a requirement for new employees.”

Looking at the current Dutch fastener market, NEVIB explains that so far this year its members have seen stable sales in terms of units, but that in general turnover is lower due to the lower price per product. “Product stocks were high in 2022, but now they have come down. Still, demand continues to be good,” reports NEVIB. “In the Netherlands, the new build construction sector is struggling somewhat, but the renovation construction market is buying fasteners as usual. There is also the higher costs of container freight, which is still a challenge – although not as high as during Covid-19, when the price increases were hefty. Luckily, steel prices so far seem to be holding steady, so that is one less factor.”