Oakdene Hollins in remanufacturing trade mission to China

David Fitzsimons joined a trade mission to China during the week beginning 22 May 2016 to boost remanufacturing.

The programme of visits in China was to build on links in product remanufacturing, a business theme Oakdene Hollins has been developing for 10 years.  The agenda included attending the Remanufacturing summit 2016 and meetings with senior government officials (officials from e.g. National Development and Reform Commission, Minister of Industry and Information Technology).

"I looked forward to renewing our contacts in China," says David. "I believe we will see Chinese inward investment in this sector and I want us to use our European network in remanufacturing to enable this process. The Circular Economy seems a long way off for some of our clients as commodity prices fall. But there are opportunities that should not be overlooked as procurement structures change for automotive OEMs in particular. As planned, I met with investors and remanufacturing specialists during the trip."

The potential UK benefits of the mission are:

• To understand and appreciate the market size, state of art technology and business opportunity of remanufacturing between China and the UK.
• To influence Chinese policy to facilitate trade in remanufacturing between the UK and China, e.g. enabling UK remanufactured products to enter Chinese market, stimulating a demand for UK remanufacturing-related products and services within China.
• To learn the lessons and best practices for development of policy framework to support the UK remanufacturing industry, e.g. certified marks for remanufactured products.

Delegates also visited Remanufacturing industrial demonstration parks, the next stage of the industrialisation of remanufacturing as encouraged by Chinese governments. There are four such national demonstration bases: in Jiangsu province, in Hunan province, Shanghai Lingang and the newly approved Jin-jin-yi park in Hebei Province. These industrial bases are normally sited on existing industry parks, making full use of the concentration of industry in the region, and the facilities and public services within the park etc. Concentration of remanufacturing industry within a defined area will be beneficial for specialization in recycling, dismantling, cleaning and public platform building. A complete industrial chain and cost-sharing mechanism can be formed, thus reducing the financial pressure on individual enterprises.

To contact David to find out more about the trade mission, please email David Fitzsimons.