Dear Colleague
 

It has always been a tough market for small businesses, but, as supply issues begin to ease in some sectors, they are now being hit with increases in costs for energy. Whilst CAB is not in the business of supplying energy, we can help by bringing businesses together to share ideas and methodologies that help reduce costs.

Training, whilst often an upfront cost, will help reduce costs in the long run by reducing potential remedial work required on site. Interestingly, the CAB website stats for January puts our CAB Curtain Wall Installer CSCS Card as the most viewed page. You can read more about the up to date scheme in the recent CAB press editorial.

We have had an excellent uptake for the Williams F1 Spring Forum members event in March. Located in Wantage, Oxfordshire, Williams Racing F1 is a purpose-built experience centre and museum. Exhibiting their Formula 1 cars and trophies. It is easily accessible with on-site parking. This will be our second visit to this stunning venue; the last one back in 2010.

CAB’s State of Trade Survey for the last quarter of 2021, completed in association with the CPA, has been issued and leads us into a CPA forecast of a reasonable busy first half of 2022 with a questionable second half of the year. You can read more in the CAB press editorial.

At CAB we will continue to review the market and let you have insights when we get them. Please help us by completing the short survey for the first quarter of 2022 when the invite comes out in early April. To obtain a copy of the fourth quarter, 2021 report, please use your member log-in and then follow this link to download the full PDF data.

Finally I’d like to touch on membership by thanking all those members who have covered their subscriptions for 2022 and thought a reminder of your member benefits may be helpful, please follow this link for a quick reminder. Please also feel free to pass this link onto and suppliers of customers in our industry who may wish to learn more.

Phil Slinger
CAB Chief Executive

Cladding and Building Safety

CAB is continuing to convene with Members and Directors of the CPA in discussing ways forward to pay for, and to replace unsafe cladding. The government has already allocated £5.1 billion to address safety concerns on residential buildings over 18 metres, but this new Government approach to the industry covers unsafe cladding concerns of buildings between 11 and 18 metres in height, this is estimated at approximately 78,000 buildings.

How this eventuality plays out is of concern to the association and its membership, such as how is ‘unsafe’ cladding identified and who is going to pay for the remedial work.

As we learn more working with the CPA and the Government, we will advise our members. Should you have any concerns or issues you wish to raise, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Phil Slinger
CAB Chief Executive

We Want Your Scrap!

We all have the ability to play our part in ‘greening-up’ our lives to help us all to achieve some form of carbon neutrality by the middle of this century. Recycling more, reducing our waste, insulating our homes and adopting renewable technologies are some of the things we can do on a personal level. Every little thing helps but many of us can also influence much larger carbon savings with decisions we make in construction.

The modern world we live in relies heavily on products made from aluminium, from food wrappers to planes, you are never far away from something containing aluminium. With aluminium being the third most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, and the most abundant metal here at 8% by volume, we are not going to run out of this material anytime soon. Bauxite ore which contains the aluminium in oxide forms, tends to be found close to the surface of the earth and is relatively easy to mine, but it does take quite a bit of energy to extract the ‘primary’ aluminium, which can then be mixed with other elements to form alloys for various usages.

Read the full article on our website.

Phil Slinger
CAB Chief Executive

What's in a Name?

There is an age old debate between speakers of American and British English about the word 'aluminium'. This is because Sir Humphrey Davy originally called it 'aluminium' in 1808 but changed the name to 'aluminum' in 1812.

The British chose to keep the original form of the word to be in form with other element names like sodium or strontium, but Americans chose the newer spelling.

Help Shape Your Association

To help shape the future direction of the Council for Aluminium in Building (CAB), we are asking members and indeed non-members, questions on a range of topics to ensure we are focusing on the things that you believe we should concentrate on. We are also asking if CAB is supporting the membership in the way you require.

We recognise that the world we all live in has changed significantly since 2019, with Brexit and Covid presenting significant challenges for all. We are now appearing to move to a new normal and feel the time is right for a review of what we do.

With a chance to win a complementary place at our Spring Forum in March, please complete our short questionnaire for an attendance package for the CAB Business Conference & Networking Forum worth over £250!

Events for Your Diary

We are delighted to launch our Spring Form to be held at Williams Racing F1, Oxfordshire on Thursday 17th March 2022. A full speaker programme will be confirmed, along with regular updates over the coming weeks.

CAB 28th Annual General Meeting, Golf Day and Black Tie Dinner is to be held at the Carden Park Hotel, Nr Chester, Cheshire, CH3 9DQ on Thursday 30th June 2022. Information has recently been sent out, should you wish to receive details of the event please contact Jessica at the CAB office.

Closing the Loop

With the ever increasing pressures to reduce energy use and recycle there has never been a better time to join the CAB Closed Loop Recycling Scheme. Click the image above or this link to review a short presentation as to why you should. By joining, not only do you ensure that your process scrap can ensure its route back into the same grade, saving precious resources, the value of your scrap in the closed loop is higher within the scheme. No matter how little scrap you produce, it all helps and by signing up you can show your customers and the wider industry that as a member you value your place in the aluminium supply chain in the UK.

It costs nothing to join, in fact you could be getting more money for your scrap as a result.

If you handle any post consumer scrap, you can also ensure this is recycled back into the same grade of aluminium alloy. No matter what is mixing in the scrap, handles, thermal breaks, steel screws, it can all be removed and 'chipped' into clean aluminium ready to go back into extrusion billet. Read our editorial above 'We Want Your Scrap' for more information and visit the CAB website for details of how to join.

CAB Residential Website

A Window Into Aluminium

And finally, please remember to sign up for our monthly eZine produced by the team at Glass News. It is free to receive a copy and as a member of CAB, free to have your PR copy placed in the eZine that is issued to over 20,000 subscribers.

To see the latest copy of the eZine follow this link.

From your Team at CAB

Justin Furness - justin.furness@c-a-b.org.uk - Senior Consultant
Martin Ford - martin.ford@c-a-b.org.uk - Technical Support Officer
Jessica Dean - jessica.dean@c-a-b.org.uk - Office & Events Manager
Kelly Lardner - kelly.lardner@c-a-b.org.uk - Membership & Office Administrator
Andrew Mather - andrew.mather@c-a-b.org.uk - Training & Technical Manager
 

Phil Slinger - phil.slinger@c-a-b.org.uk - Chief Executive