Cast iron heat exchangers are old school now and are only produced for the older range boilers and as spares for older boilers. Most new boilers use cast aluminium or fabricated stainless steel heat exchangers now.
Aluminium heat exchanger's will still be produced at Preston. Some of which are exported out of the country so nothing 'Chinese' going on.
The absorption will happen because the assembly lines at Padiham are moving to Preston. The business is consolidating into one site to save overheads and reduce the cost to produce boilers.
In the global market we (Companies in the UK) have to produce goods in this country at a cost and quality to compete with other countries. If we can't compete we will lose even more of our manufacturing industry. In the current manufacturing climate most plant moves east these days so maybe Baxi is bucking this trend by moving it's lines west to Preston
