Insight

With so many political, economic, and industry, factors currently influencing the fastener market we decided to invite leading fastener businesses, from all European countries, for an insight into the prospects and challenges of their domestic markets.

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 future. We are really grateful for the time and thought generously invested in assembling a unique perspective of the European fastener landscape.

For space reasons we have edited some contributions but have been careful to retain the core of each contributor’s insight. Of course, there will be other, and perhaps divergent, viewpoints. Yours may well be one and we would be very happy to hear it for a future issue: editor@fastenerandfixing.com

Meanwhile, we hope you find this anthology as fascinating as we have.

Pecol Automotive
Ana Neves, key account manager

10 years after the European automotive market crisis in 2008/09, export of Portuguese cars reached a historic milestone of recovery in early 2019.

Arecord high of 1,000 cars were exported per day in 2019. This has made an important impact on the Portuguese automotive components industry that exports €9.4 billion, mainly to Spain, Germany and France.

Pecol Automotive has contributed to this growth, reaching a historical value of 95% of exports of the parts we produce, besides all the constraints – such as the lack of qualified operators in the sector, which has been a constant concern in recent years.

Pecol Automotive has invested in internal training to obtain more and more qualified human resources in a sector in which quality and service levels are increasingly demanding. We also equipped our machines with Poka-yoke process monitoring systems to improve our production rates, enhance quality and to guarantee our tool protection, always respecting Lean manufacturing methods.

In an industry in which ‘just in time’ delivery is mandatory, without forecast engagements, process optimisation and investment in areas of research and development (R&D) are key factors for survival in this business. New fixing products, with increasingly reliable production technologies, respect a market that aims to reach 0ppm.

Pecol Automotive is the only Portuguese producer of fasteners for the automotive industry with an all-in-house process. From raw material treatment to sorting and packaging machines, we supply all tier 1 companies on a global scale with a high level of service excellence, with investments in processes and machines every year and with excellent levels of competitiveness. The geographical position of the country towards Europe, the possibility of sending engineering and development teams to our customers for technical support, and transparency, have been key factors to the success of our company.

In a context of uncertainty regarding the future of the automotive industry – with the rise of electric vehicles – the focus on the modernisation of the sector, on the development of more and new technological processes, as well as the internationalisation of the companies, will be crucial.

We have been investing in a strong internationalisation of the company in recent years. We have a production and development centre of automotive components in Barcelona, Spain, and we have created distribution logistics centres in Italy and Poland to increase our competitiveness and to explore new markets, especially in eastern Europe.

The acquisition of other companies has also been part of the company’s strategy. With the acquisitions, Pecol inherits customers, orders, price level and know how. The increase of our product range has been another important consequence, which allows us to enter to the supplier’s panel of new customers. Today Pecol Automotive is present in 4 continents and more than 50 countries – expansion is a word without a limit for us.

LUSAVOUGA
Rui Vicente Santos, CEO

Getting over our daily challenges is what defines us, and at LUSAVOUGA what also defines our daily operation is the constant pursuit for quality and providing a range of products that fulfil our customers’ needs.

We operate in a very mature market, in constant evolution due to technology and innovation. Each achievement impacts the customer’s experience and the way each organisation and the market operates. That is why new ideas and innovation are the top of our priorities – allowing a higher market focused operation, while increasing quality and service.

That is also one of the reasons why we decided to invest in our private label CHEMITOOL, where each product is the result of years and years of experience and know how – as well as a close relationship and development process with the manufacturer.

This close partnership enables us to test both prototype and final product in very aggressive and rough environments to reach a perfect high-quality, high industry standards product. This methodology is applied to every CHEMITOOL product: From a simple steel washer to the most complex, technical, expertise product, ensuring our customers, from the 30 markets we operate in, receive only the best products.

Innovation is our passion and what feeds and move us daily. In-line with this basic principle, is our digital strategy and our new state of the art B2B online platform, which will start preliminary beta-testing in September and will be available in the first quarter of 2020. The new platform will empower our customers and allow them full control of their order and a quick access to our products.

Download the full European fastener market report here