< Previous20 Business Link www.blmforum.net PETROCHEMICALS SPOTLIGHT Tel: 01482 325676 • Email: sales@kingston-engineering.co.uk • www.kingston-engineering.co.uk Kingston Engineering are specialists in precision engineering, based in Hull. As one of the region’s leading companies in their sector, Kingston Engineering can provide specialised power screw products, specialist leadscrew and ex-stock power nuts and screws. In addition, they can provide expertise and guidance in factory and production machinery installation, commissioning, maintenance and repair. industrial operations and safely stores it underground. Going further, carbon from petrochemical plants can be leveraged as a feedstock in a range of products and services, for manufacturing CO2-based chemicals, and for conversion into clean fuel. A barrier however is CCS’s high cost, and although in the Autumn Budget Chancellor Rishi Sunak showed a commitment to CCS - reconfirming the allocation of £1 billion to the development of carbon capture utilisation and storage infrastructure - there is minimal long term support for such projects past up front capital investment, which may see the failure of CCS initiatives as they develop – not an uncommon fate. It followed the announcement that the HyNet project in north-west England and the East Coast Cluster for Teesside and the Humber were selected by the Government to become the UK’s first two carbon capture utilisation and storage projects as part of Government’s plans to establish four projects to capture 10Mt of carbon dioxide a year by 2030. Meanwhile the petrochemical industry is also embracing plastic waste-to- chemical feedstock technology. Pyrolysis oil for instance is being made from recycled plastic waste for use in crackers to make circular chemical products, for which demand is growing in our ever more eco-conscious and CSR-focused world. In addition to this, sustainable feedstocks including used cooking oil and animal fats are being used for renewable naphtha for petrochemical production instead of traditional crude oil and natural gas condensates, while renewable carbon sources for making chemicals like biomass and captured CO2 are being looked at. Captured CO2 and hydrogen can be transformed into methanol or converted within the reverse water-gas shift reaction to a syngas containing CO, CO2 and hydrogen which can be further processed to make chemicals and fuels. With a plethora of projects in the pipeline, the petrochemical industry is showing increasing commitment to improving its sustainability as one of the largest industrial sources of emissions, a major polluter, and consumer of fossil fuels. However there is a long way to go with these initiatives still not yet widespread. © stock.adobe.com/Marharyta 16-20.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:39 Page 5www.blmforum.net Business Link 21 LEGAL SERVICES A ccessing legal services - whether for dispute resolutions, HR issues, debt recovery, routine legal document drafting, et al. - is often perceived as too hard, too slow, and too expensive by SMEs, leading them to instead attempt to deal with legal issues alone, despite needing support, with only a quarter of small businesses employing professional help for legal issues and half handling them themselves, while some are not even sure where to seek advice. Recent research for LawtechUK and the Legal Services Board (LSB) has emphasised this fact, indicating that SMEs are frustrated that getting legal issues resolved can be costly and time-consuming, while many do not know when or whether to involve lawyers. The qualitative study of SMEs from different sectors asked firms about their business’s legal problems and how they access legal advice and support. It reveals how small and medium sized businesses could be better served, pinpointing a gap in the market for lawtech, a hot topic in the sector which covers technology enabling the delivery of legal and court services, spanning applications from handling and resolving disputes to contract creation, management and analysis, compliance, digital documents, e-signing, automation of routine tasks, advice facilitation, predictive intelligence and more. The research found that most SMEs can see a role for technology, or lawtech solutions, particularly for their most common legal needs, such as finding a legal service provider in the marketplace and preparing legal documents, and view them as bridging a gap between traditional legal providers and ‘DIY law’ (where issues are straightforward), though noting the importance of access to in- person support alongside digital tools. SMEs want a combination of lawtech and the expertise of traditional providers. The research indicates, however, that for SMEs these solutions must be good value for money, provide reassurance, and must not take up too much of their time. This technology can open up access to legal services, with digital tools for example helping businesses find legal routes to solving problems, or to understand which legal services provider is best equipped to advise on a specific issue. There is an opportunity for traditional and lawtech providers to Enhancing legal services with lawtech Though the legal services sector has long been perceived as slow to evolve, increased investment in lawtech is signalling change. 22 Á 21-23.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:41 Page 122 Business Link www.blmforum.net LEGAL SERVICES come together to supply end-to-end, consumer-focused services, filling unmet legal requirements and offering more choice to clients. Jenifer Swallow, LawtechUK director at Tech Nation, said: “SMEs make up 99% of all UK businesses and 60% of jobs, and are fundamental to our communities, yet too often they end up ‘going it alone’ when it comes to legal issues. Owners of SMEs are often time poor and accessing legal services is seen as too hard, too expensive and a low priority compared to the list of pressures they face running their business. Speaking to SMEs, they point to a clear role for lawtech, giving them access to legal support that is timely, affordable, convenient and reassuring – and, importantly, that increases their resilience over time. The debate is often framed around technology replacing existing services, but our research shows that lawtech offers new opportunities for legal service providers to meet the unmet needs of SMEs and make many people’s lives easier in the process. For lawtech innovators, our research shows that the SME market is one where transformative legal products could thrive and support the tens of thousands of SMEs that are in need of their assistance.” Lawtech presents a chance to reshape the slow to change, risk averse legal sector, to the benefit of clients and law firms, and has gained fresh favour following the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the adoption of digital technology generally has accelerated in legal services, such as investment in up- to-date cloud services and software to support remote working. Lawtech gives customers easy access to services as and when required, including out of office hours, cost savings, more transparency, whereas new revenue streams and enhanced productivity are offered to those supplying legal products while giving them an edge over competitors through improved client experience. Furthermore the LawtechUK Report 2021: Shaping the Future of Law identifies cost savings of up to £8.6bn each year for SMEs using lawtech 21-23.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:41 Page 2www.blmforum.net Business Link 23 LEGAL SERVICES © stock.adobe.com/insta_photos products and services, and an £11.4bn per year market opportunity for lawtech and innovation to address the unmet legal needs of SMEs and consumers in providing accessible, affordable services, as well as up to £1.7bn annually in productivity gains for legal services providers. There is now a deepened focus on tech in legal services, in R&D, it is no longer on the sidelines. The report notes that investment growth in lawtech is currently fastest in regulatory compliance, booming by 214% between 2018 and 2020 as businesses look to meet the increasing compliance burden. Another key area in which lawtech is becoming more vital is for leveraging data to help providers and clients improve decision making, efficiency and productivity, and reduce risk. Shaping the Future of Law highlights for example how data analysis could be used to assess likelihood of litigation or detect compliance exposures. To achieve this though, changes will need to be made to data collection and access, and to how documents are created and stored to enable data capture, including putting paper documents onto systems that allow AI tools to do their work. There is great opportunity in digital documents, with self-executing smart contract code that can automate actions within a document, creating a smart contract and making documents live digital tools able to respond in real time to events, bolstering efficiency, mitigating human error, and facilitating automatic reporting and monitoring. Meanwhile machine learning can detect red flags in bodies of text. As legal services adopt lawtech, there will be a need for tech-savvy employees and to ensure teams are on board. New skills will be required and the upskilling of staff to make sure they hold the appropriate digital skills to take advantage of lawtech, which should improve processes, client experience, and give lawyers more time to focus on high value tasks. In addition the importance of cyber security will only grow in hand with the expanding use of lawtech. 21-23.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:41 Page 324 Business Link www.blmforum.net FREIGHT, STORAGE AND MOVEMENT Another day another crisis It is not the easiest of times for freight transport; the freight transport industry was still trying to recover from all the issues that came from the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit when the Ukrainian crisis and the sanctions on Russia hit it considerably. 24-27.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:42 Page 1www.blmforum.net Business Link 25 FREIGHT, STORAGE AND MOVEMENT © stock.adobe.com/Oleksandra F reight transport is going through a tough time due to the critical circumstances we are all currently facing. Covid did not do the freight transport industry any favours, with restrictions in place, all the new requirements for travelling and the increased demand for products, that put a lot of pressure on the global supply chain. Unfortunately, things have only been getting worse, and the freight transport industry is constantly finding itself to be facing new challenges. The current Ukrainian crisis has made all freight movements extremely difficult, especially air transport. The European Union, the UK, Canada, and the Baltic and Scandinavian states have barred all Russian-owned, registered and controlled aircraft from overflights of their territories, as well as flying over Russia has been banned. As a result of those bans, it has become more difficult to reach Asia for all European, or European based, suppliers and manufacturers; all the routes between Europe and Russia are currently blocked and cargo and commercial flights are now required to fly around Russia if they wish to reach their destination. Unfortunately, avoiding Russia means increasing flying routes and times and, hence, making air freight transportation significantly more difficult and expensive. The complications have resulted in several companies completely cutting and cancelling all flights that would normally go through Russia in favour of alternatives routes or stop-over locations. The increased flying times and routes are also resulting in increased costs of flights, forcing the market to face another crisis. Expanding flying times means that the aircraft will need more fuel to fly which is another issue, as costs of oil are currently growing exponentially. 26 Á 24-27.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:42 Page 226 Business Link www.blmforum.net FREIGHT, STORAGE AND MOVEMENT Fuel costs are increasing significantly due to the sanctions against Russia imposed by most countries, including the European Union, the UK, Canada and the US. Over a third of gas used by Europe comes from Russia and as a result of the sanctions, oil prices have now reached over 100 USD per barrel and are expected to grow over 130 USD per barrel soon. The increasing costs are alimenting the current supply crisis that is considerably weighing on the freight industry and especially on air freight transport. When it comes to inland freight movement, only less than 10% of it happens on rail, over 80% is on road and only 6% of freight is moved by water. Clearly, road freight transport is the most popular and commonly used way of freight movement, but even on the road there have been some obstacles to face. The rising costs of petrol, first as a result of Brexit and now due to the sanctions on Russia, have been putting a considerable amount of pressure on the road freight industry and made movements of cargo extremely costly and difficult. Additionally, the UK has been registering a substantial loss of workforce and HGV drivers following the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, which had led to shortages within the supply chain. The shortages were a result of many factors, like drivers quitting during the pandemic, most immigrant drivers leaving the UK after Brexit and the fuel price crisis. However, if among all ways of inland freight transportation road freight is the most popular, it is also the most polluting. Freight transport produces around 30% of UK’s total carbon emission, and over 90% of that comes from road freight. On the other hand, rail freight is responsible for only a quarter of the CO2 emissions of an HGV per tonne mile travelled, making railways the most sustainable mean of freight movement and transport. Because of its sustainability, the UK government is promoting rail freight as the main inland based alternative for freight transport. Unfortunately, the sole use of railway for freight transport will not be enough to reduce carbon emissions significantly, and the freight and transport industry, along with the government, will be required to invest in new technologies, infrastructures and vehicles to achieve the net zero goals set by the government. In order to achieve more sustainability, the government needs to update and © stock.adobe.com/Chalabala 24-27.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:42 Page 3www.blmforum.net Business Link 27 FREIGHT, STORAGE AND MOVEMENT D Davies Turner Celebrating 150 years of pioneering service YEARS innovate the railway system and it is actually planning on electrifying all railways across the UK, which will help reduce emissions and it will help the railway industry stay competitive thanks to the new, greener strategies in place. Promoting the railway system as the main mean of freight transportation on land will also allow to reduce the number of heavy goods vehicles, which will result in lower carbon emissions and less traffic congestions on the main roads. Additionally, the use of rail freight could potentially alleviate the problems related to HGV drivers’ shortages. Unfortunately, rail freight is also suffering the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis and of all the sanctions against Russia. Trains are still allowed to travel through Russia to reach China and Asia, however freight originating from Russia is not allowed to enter the European Union, which can result in substantial economic damages for EU manufacturers and suppliers. Times have been very tough for the freight industry and unfortunately better prospects are nowhere to be seen. Although one would hope it was solved as quickly as possible, the Ukrainian crisis is probably going to be causing issues for the foreseeable future, which means sanctions on Russia will keep weighing on the freight transport industry, along with rising costs of petrol. However, although the present might not seem too bright, it is important to stay positive and work towards new investments and solutions that will help bring freight transport closer to net zero and a more sustainable and greener future. © stock.adobe.com/Jag_cz 24-27.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:42 Page 428 Business Link www.blmforum.net CORPORATE FINANCE R unning a business is difficult. This is no new revelation or sudden epiphany, but a fact that any decision maker knows. It’s not enough to work your hardest sometimes, nor for your staff to do the same. Sometimes companies struggle because of conditions outside their control, be it a faltering economy, a worldwide pandemic forcing everyone into a lockdown or a sudden war. Or as is the case now, all three at once. As distant as it may seem, the war in Ukraine and the sanctions placed on Russia (and it is likely Russia will retaliate in kind economically), the world market is becoming increasingly unstable. As of the time of writing, fuel costs have risen dramatically and are expected to keep rising, and an energy crisis grips the country. That this should come just after lockdown has been lifted, and not long after Brexit and the economic downturn, is a flurry of negative events that will have driven many companies, if not to the brink, then at the very least into a poor cashflow position. In times like these it’s normal, even instinctual, to look to buoy that cashflow with a loan. The poor trading conditions will pass surely, and all that’s needed is a little injection, some stimulus, to keep things running until that time. This is the common response, Time to crunch the numbers Many businesses are struggling after lockdown and now a war between Russia and Ukraine will impact bottom lines even in our region as fuel and energy prices soar, and as the stock market falters. In times so desperate it becomes more important than ever to be realistic. 30 Á 28-31.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:44 Page 1www.blmforum.net Business Link 29 CORPORATE FINANCE © stock.adobe.com/goodluz 28-31.qxp_Layout 1 07/03/2022 11:44 Page 2Next >