2023-07-08 04:15:00
Although some of the dark clouds that overshadow the future of the industry –the main one, the brutal increase in the cost of energy and raw materials– seem to be beginning to clear, The Asturian metal employers’ association, Femetal, assures that the majority of companies in the sector “continue to live constantly in the most absolute uncertainty”, which “is slowing down investment and growth processes.” This was announced yesterday by the president of the organization, Antonio Fernández-Escandón, during the closing of the general assembly, held in Avilés. The businessman from Gijón warned that the various difficulties faced by industrial activity make “the survival of SMEs, which make up 96% of the business fabric, increasingly difficult.”
The leader of Femetal stressed that the proximity of the general elections and the formation of the next Asturian government make up a “perfect moment” to “design the future of the Asturian industry”, which in his opinion has three main “weaknesses”: the shortage of qualified personnel, the size of companies and the need for more innovation. These three circumstances, according to Fernández-Escandón, are “recurring handicaps” that offer “a notable margin for improvement.”
Regarding the lack of labor, the president of Femetal regretted that there are not enough young people who want to join the sector, “despite the fact that 80% of the contracts are permanent and the salary is the fifth highest in Spain” . To remedy this, the employer is committed to public-private collaboration plans that offer adequate training to the specific needs of companies, as well as “advance” in dual professional training.
Fernández-Escandón also emphasized the “incorporation of more innovation, both in the business model and in the manufacturing processes”, claiming for this “tax benefits and deductions”, as well as “subsidy lines”. To illustrate this need, the businessman indicated that “only 35% of Asturian companies from all sectors innovate both in product and in process”. It is, in his opinion, a “low” percentage that “significantly contributes to the fact that the size of the companies is small.”
This last issue was also analyzed by Fernández-Escandón, since “a small company has fewer resources, both financial and human, to internationalize and undertake innovative processes that set it apart”. In addition, he warned, SMEs are registering “increasing levels of absenteeism.” For these reasons, the president of Femetal asked the authorities and the various economic agents in Asturias to introduce mechanisms for industrial companies to increase in size and integrate their value chains.
Likewise, the leader of Femetal demanded a “more homogeneous” tax system throughout Spain, since “Asturias is the Northwest region with the largest number of its own taxes.” “If we add the increase in financing interest to high taxation, the effect it generates is to paralyze or slow down any investment,” he lamented.
It also called for “integration and simplification of administrative procedures and authorization procedures for electricity generation plants from renewable sources, as well as their evacuation and network connection infrastructures.” And he reproached that in recent months companies “have been immersed in a maelstrom of laws”, especially of an environmental nature, which he described as a “remora” for the industry. Thus, Fernández-Escandón pointed out that the new Environmental Quality law, approved in March, “does not add agility and foreseeably will not shorten deadlines” in the processing of authorizations.
energy price
In his speech, the president of TotalEnergies, Javier Sáenz de Jubera, predicted that “within two or three years there will be significant drops in the price of energy”, and advanced that in the whole of this year “more than half of the generation of energy in Spain will come from renewable sources, compared to 48% last year”.
José Miguel Guerrero, president of Confemetal (the national organization in which Femetal is a member), admitted that “the industry is going through difficult times”, and criticized the fact that the European Next Generation funds “are not working as a lever”.
For her part, the president of FADE, María Calvo, called on the next Asturian and Spanish governments to “take the competitiveness of companies as a matter of survival.” “We must fight so that Asturias does not lose strength,” she urged.
#survival #industry #increasingly #difficult #warns #metal #sector