UKTI North East was delighted to host both the Minister Lord Green and incoming CEO Nick Baird last week , to celebrate the North East's export achievements and also pay a visit to some key companies in the region that are playing a part in that success . Exports in NE have now touched £13bn p.a. and we need to keep that trend going.
Highlights included a visit to International Innovative Technologies, who have invented (yes, invented!) a new milling process technology, the first time milling technology has changed for 100 years . There are lots of orders building and the company expects exports sales to quickly reach the tens of millions of pounds. Our visit to the Port of Tyne was exceptional – we went to see the Nissan export dock (handling over 400,000 cars per annum), the Volkswagen dock, the facility for 3m+ tons of coal the Port handles for the Drax power station, material destined for the UK’s first biomass power plant and the exciting new developments for Windpower facilities on the Tyne to service Dogger Bank in the North Sea (by boat, from the river Tyne). It’s a great credit to the team to see the river uses diversifying from an old and proud history on the river.
Nick and the Minister both gave speeches at the North East Annual Exporters Awards event – and were very well received . As part of the Export event we had the chance to drive the new Nissan Leaf. It's truly remarkable: absolutely silent, drives very well and charges to 85% capacity in about 30 minutes .
Now, as a region, we have to increase the number of SMEs engaged in international trade and make sure that the quality of that engagement is first class.
1 comment
Comment by Lissa Holmes posted on
Great to see both Nick Baird and Lord Green in the region and wonderful that they got the chance to see first hand some of the North East exporting successes we have. Encouraging as well to hear them both speak about the opportunities for export and supporting British businesses to do so.