Source:
HEGAN 21/06/2024
- The HEGAN Association-Cluster reflects on its new strategic period with its sights firmly set on sustainable aviation and people
- The Basque aerospace industry not only recovers but even exceeds pre-pandemic figures
Elgoibar, 21 June 2024. HEGAN - the Basque Aerospace Cluster held its annual General Assembly today. The event, which took place at the Ideko Technology Centre (one of HEGAN’s members), was chaired by José Julián ECHEVARRÍA, Chairman of HEGAN and Aerospace & Defence Managing Director at Sener, who, alongside Ana VILLATE, Director of the Cluster, presented the results pertaining to 2023 and described both the actions carried out during that year and those underway in 2024. At the close of the Assembly, José Julián ECHEVARRÍA passed the baton to his successor, Ricardo CHOCARRO, CEO of Aernnova and the person who, for the next two years, will serve as the Chairman of HEGAN.
This meeting of the General Assembly, HEGAN’s top-level body, was the perfect opportunity to continue working on the strategic reflection process in which the cluster is currently immersed. The process will culminate in the drafting of a Strategic Plan for the upcoming period 2025-2028, and will guide the Cluster’s actions over the coming years. The members validated the phases of the process that have been carried out so far, along with the deliverables resulting from them, including the SWOT analysis of their associated sector. Furthermore, various points of interest and challenges were identified as priority areas of focus for the Cluster over the next four years, as part of its ongoing effort to provide value to its members.
The employment and turnover figures reported for 2023 by the 76 members of the Cluster exceeded those recorded prior to the pandemic, thereby rewarding the efforts made in terms of retaining staff, investing in competitiveness and continuing to improve their position on the world market.
Holding firm during difficult times
2023 was a year in which the industry in which HEGAN operates, which suffered greatly during the pandemic and the subsequent collapse of the passenger air transport sector, finally regained and even exceeded the employment and turnover figures registered in 2019. The pandemic interrupted the continuous growth that the Cluster had enjoyed since it was first formed, although in 2023, it registered a 7.8% global growth in employment and a 24% global growth in turnover in comparison with 2022. Thanks to these positive figures, the yearly average growth rates of 2% in employment and 6% in turnover have been recovered, thereby re-establishing the trend interrupted so abruptly and unexpectedly in 2020, when the Cluster suffered a 30% reduction in turnover and lost 10% of its employees.
The past four years have been a long hard slog for the members of HEGAN, pushing them to their limits in a very complex environment characterised by interruptions in the supply of raw materials, major increases in production costs, skyrocketing inflation, an unstable geopolitical scenario, and challenging conditions in terms of both energy and finance. However, their efforts have now been rewarded with the excellent figures in 2023.
Ongoing commitment to People, R&D&I and Sustainability
The industry continues to demonstrate its strength, resilience and ability to adapt, evident in the concerted effort made by the Cluster’s members to maintain their existing staff and even take on new employees, as well as their ongoing investment in resources and R&D&I.
Innovation linked to knowledge and technological development has become the Cluster’s driving force and the distinguishing feature that enables it to remain competitive, since R&D&I programmes and activities do not just develop new technologies and products, they also improve industrial processes, making them cleaner and increasingly more competitive, turning the sector into a strategic industry. By way of example, over the past year, members have invested 6.8% of their sales volume in R&D&I, a total of €195 million spread across 251 different projects. Thanks to this effort, the industry continues to engage in intensive R&D&I activity, with an accumulated investment over the past 10 years totalling over €1.3 billion, an average of 6.8% per year.
Other factors closely linked to competitiveness include training and caring for and protecting existing talent. We have highly versatile profiles in terms of both technological capabilities and other cross-cutting skills, all of which are essential when working in an ever-more collaborative, inclusive, sustainable and global industry. It is vital to encourage young people to pursue scientific and technical careers, since the future will be written by them and by society in general, not only by the industry.
Forecasts for the industry
In the opinion of the HEGAN Cluster’s Director, ‘the situation of the industry has improved notably, despite the large-scale uncertainties that continue to affect the world map and despite the fact that we are still beset by problems such as tension in the supply chain, raw material shortages, high energy costs and rising inflation, all of which have a direct impact on the Cluster’s competitiveness’.
2024 will be the first year of real growth since high point attained just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and, according to the latest forecasts, the size of the world’s commercial fleet looks set to double over the next 20 years from the approximately 24,000 vehicles currently available to 48,000 in 2042; according to estimates published by Airbus and Boeing, by this date the world will need around 42,000 new aeroplanes.
The aerospace industry can therefore expect to see an ongoing increase in its general activities. In this sense, the growth experienced over recent years has been fuelled by the incorporation of new figures with a clearly commercial focus, an increase in private investments, the demand for new services and operations linked to land observation and communications, and the ongoing commitment by governments to develop new, powerful missions. This increase in activity not only sustains the industry itself, but also has a positive impact on society, enabling us all to live in a safer, more sustainable and better-connected world. Euroconsult estimates that almost 30,000 satellites will be launched over the next 10 years, three times the number (10,000) calculated as currently being in orbit by the website orbit.ing-now.com.
Good moments and great challenges
2023 closed with air traffic figures back up to pre-pandemic levels. This, coupled with the upswing in the space industry and the emergence of new projects and programmes linked to the concept of New Mobility and the decarbonisation of the aeronautics sector, provided the industry in the Basque Country with sufficient activity to close the year in an excellent position. Similarly, R&D&I is also experiencing a moment of intense activity and major challenges promoted by a combination of subsidies deployed to help mitigate the effects of the crisis, the development cycles of key technologies linked to process and platform sustainability and new digital challenges.
This is all excellent news. However, there are certain trends on which we need to keep a careful eye, even though the general outlook is positive as a result of the industry’s excellent position at present. One obstacle facing the members of HEGAN is the tension that still exists in their supply chains as a result of the recent ramp-up and increased production; there are also still some difficulties linked to the supply and cost of raw material and other inputs; members face competitive demands that require them to improve and digitalise their processes and strive for even higher levels of operational excellence; and, of course, as in almost all high-value areas of activity, there is major concern about talent. In relation to this last point, the Chairman of the Cluster stated the following: ‘our previous warnings (about the lack of early vocations and difficulties attracting, hiring and retaining staff) now reflect a major challenge, with members having trouble finding the professionals they need at all levels’.
During its General Assembly, the Aerospace Cluster reminded members of the key role played by the industry as a driver of technological development and a vector for the transfer of this technology to other industries. It emphasised its key role as a generator of wealth and value for society, high-quality employment and promotion of R&D&I, along with the need to become part of the global solution to the challenges of decarbonisation, hybridisation, electrification and neutral emissions by developing new fuels such as H2 (hydrogen) and SAFs (sustainable aviation fuels).
Cluster figures for 2023
The Basque Aerospace Cluster - HEGAN is made up of 76 members located all along the aerospace value chain. Members include 4 Tier 1 companies, 50 industrial companies, 10 technology centres, 5 universities and 7 allies. Currently, HEGAN members have a total of 168 different facilities around the world, with 99 centres in the Basque Country, 41 in the rest of Spain and 28 abroad (Brazil, China, Germany, India, Malta, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, the UK and the USA).
In 2023 they had an aggregated turnover of nearly €2.9 billion (counting all their plants around the world). By subsector, Engines accounted for 51.9% of this turnover, Aerostructures 41%, Space 3.7% and Systems and Equipment 3.4%. Employment also recovered, reaching an all-time high with 15,396 people working in all the Cluster’s plants around the world, and 5,500 in the Basque Country.
Investment in R&D&I totalled €195 million (of which 86% was self-financed) and exports totalled just over €2.2 billion, 77% of total sales. The principal countries to which products were exported during this period were the UK (29%), the USA (20%), Germany (19%) and France (13%).
Figures for 2023 in comparison with 2022
HEGAN members
Industry: AERNNOVA, ITP AERO, SENER, ACITURRI, AALBERTS TEY, AEROSPACE ENGINEERING GROUP, AEROMEC, AIBE, ANTERAL, ARATZ, ASTORKIA, AYZAR, BATZ AERO, BURDINBERRI, DANOBATGROUP, DOILAN, DTK, DYFA, EGAMASTER, EGILE, EHAFF, EIPC, EKIN, EYHER, EUROUTIL, GEMINYS, HEXAGON, INDUSTRIAS GALINDO, KHEGAL, KORTA, INGETEAM, LAZPIUR, MESIMA, METALÚRGICA MARINA, MET-MEKA, METRALTEC, METROLOGÍA SARIKI, MICROLAN, MIZAR ADDITIVE, MATRICI INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, NUTER, ONA ELECTROEROSIÓN, RENISHAW IBÉRICA, SATLANTIS, SIKULAN, SISTEPLANT, TECNASA, TM TELLERIA, TUBACEX, TTT GROUP, URETA, WEC, WOLCO and XUBI
Technology centres: AZTERLAN, CEIT, CIDETEC, CTA, GAIKER, IDEKO, LORTEK, NAITEC, TECNALIA and TEKNIKER
Universities: UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY - UPV/EHU, MONDRAGON UNIVERSITY, TECNUN, UNIVERSITY OF DEUSTO and UPNA
Cluster allies: COMPITTE, DELOITTE, EY, GU, H&A, LABORAL KUTXA and SMARTLOG
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