Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! Now March is here let’s hope it has brought some spring weather!

First up today you can check out this week’s Great British Manufacturing Podcast released earlier today to hear from MTA Head of Operations, James Fudge. He’s been talking to the team about what to expect from next month’s MACH exhibition https://bit.ly/MTAMACH.

The MTA are delighted to welcome Kevan Holloway to the MTA team who takes up the role of Client Engagement Manager. Find out a bit more about Kevan in the story we have for him and what he will be doing for The MTA. Many of you will already know Kevan from his time at the MTC and AMRC and we’re excited to have him on board!

Following Russia’s unprovoked, premeditated attack on Ukraine, the National Cyber Security Centre continues to call upon on organisations in the UK to bolster their online defences. If you missed some of the guidance stories that went into the FB last week then please check out this story to make sure you get the guidance you need.

Similarly, please see Notice to Exporters 2022/04 informing about introduction of new trade sanctions on Russia introduced on 1 March 2022. The measures in  Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2022 include a list of critical-industry goods and critical-industry technology which are prohibited for export, supply or transfer to, or for use in Russia, along with the provision of technical assistance, financial services and brokering services. Check out more in the story.

The new MTA standards booklet has been released. The document is updated and distributed every 3 months. It is available via the MTA’s Friday Brief and on our website. Check out the bullet points with the information of what is involved in the booklet and a link below.

As we start to learn to live with COVID-19 and government legislation is lifted in England, keeping workplaces safe and COVID-secure now sits even more heavily on the shoulders of employers.Based on commonly asked questions, the Health & Safety experts of MTA Associate Member, Citation, have created a handy free guide, packed with key ways to start futureproofing your workplace against the risk of COVID-19. Find out more in the story.

There is a mixed picture in the latest readings for the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data for the manufacturing sector with mostly moderate movements in both directions compared to January. The UK reading moved up despite a fall in export orders and the overall global index was also a little stronger, but there was a modest fall in the Euro-zone, although this also reflected a combination of movements among the individual countries.  While supply chain issues remain for most countries, the extent of these continues to ease.

Our economic news article this week looks at the UK trade (exports/imports) data for the 4th quarter of 2021 and the full year trends – this completes our round-up of the data that was published a couple of weeks ago by the ONS – and we also review the latest information from the European Commission Economic Sentiment survey.

Finally, the February edition of the MTA Business Survey is underway and we have some extra questions this month relating to the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine;  we are being asked by a number of contacts for our views on the impact of this both directly on business levels and indirectly from issues such as increased prices for energy and materials, which these are designed to address.  You can access the questionnaire at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-feb22 and we hope that you will be able to spare a couple of minutes to participate.

Thank you for keeping up to date with our Friday Brief! We hope you all have a great weekend and look forward to ‘seeing’ you again next Friday