Friday Brief Intro 25/03/2022

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief. With the sunshine out to stay for a couple more days, we are eager for the exciting events approaching in the next two weeks.

We would like to begin this week with a reminder that the MTA’s Annual Dinner just under 2 weeks away! There are spaces still available so please follow this link to book your space now – https://www.mta.org.uk/event/mta-annual-dinner-2022

ECJU is reviewing and updating its operational processes so that it provides a more efficient, professional and customer focused export control service. The ECJU administers the UK’s system of export controls and licensing for military and dual-use items. They have set up a survey to get freedback. Please find more details below.

CustomsClear helps you quickly submit your EU export customs declarations directly to HMRC, with no customs expertise or set-up costs required. If your company is looking to reduce costs, simplify processes and avoid delays this platform may be for you. More details on their guidance can be found in the story below.

BSI is delighted to be working with Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Race to Zero campaign to supply 100,000 free copies of BS ISO 50005. The recently published standard, BS ISO 50005 Energy management systems. Guidelines for a phased implementation, simplifies the implementation of an energy management system. Check out more below along with a separate story on the new BSI standards, comments welcome.

The US is to lift its tariffs on UK steel and aluminium, bringing it into line with policy towards the EU. In return, the UK is dropping tariffs on US whiskey, motorcycles and jeans. The two sides this week opened new trade talks in Baltimore and made commitments. Find out with this is including in the story along with links to more details.

An inaugural National Manufacturing Day (NMD) will take place on Thursday 7 July 2022. The initiative is being led by Make UK, and is encouraging manufacturers open your doors to local communities, and media, giving people the chance to see manufacturing and to think about future careers. Find the ways in which you can get involved below.

This week saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer deliver his Spring Statement and we have a summary of the most important items in an article this week. This was not intended to be a budget so there is little of direct relevance to member companies but there were pointers to work that needs to be done in the coming months on topics like skills, investment (with the need for plans to replace the super-deduction scheme when it expires in 2023) and the reform of R&D tax credits and MTA will be engaging in this work ahead of the autumn Budget.

Our economic news article this week takes a look at the latest results from the CBI Industrial Trends Survey and the flash Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for manufacturing. Both are generally positive but with signs of a weakening of growth driven both by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and continuing supply chain issues. We also have the latest data on orders in the US machine tool market.

Thank you for keeping up to date with us this week. That’s all we have for this week’s Friday Brief. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend

MMN event 4th April

Additive manufacturing (AM) is now part of our everyday lives with many technologies available covering a very wide range of applications. Hybrid manufacturing encompasses aspects of AM as well as traditional methods, increasing the scope for what can be done in modern manufacturing companies. This event, run by MTA Associate Member NPL, will bring you […]

REVIEW OF SPRING STATEMENT

Jack Semple, Secretary of EAMA (the Engineering and Machinery Alliance, of which MTA is a member) has prepared a summary of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement and you can download this below. He takes a look at the context of the statement – very much not a “Budget” as the Chancellor is very keen to get […]

ECONOMIC NEWS

CBI Industrial Trends Survey, March 2022: Before we look at the latest results from the CBI Industrial Trends Survey (ITS) it is worth noting that although it is labelled as “March”, the data collection period ran from 24th February to 14th March. This means that although it is one of the first surveys to have […]

HMRC begins CHIEF phase-out

HMRC has announced that it is starting the phasing in of the new Customs Declaration Service, which will replace the 30-year-old CHIEF system. CHIEF will close for import declarations on September 30th and for export declarations in March 2023. HMRC has just written to firms about the change. The letter is the first listed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letters-to-businesses-about-importing-and-exporting-goods-between-great-britain-and-the-eu?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=3e0dab73-23fd-4293-b67d-6d88aa71dbcc&utm_content=daily and […]

National Manufacturing Day

BSI – Take the first step to a Net Zero future

BSI is delighted to be working with Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Race to Zero campaign to supply 100,000 free copies of BS ISO 50005, ensuring that no matter what size an organization is, everyone can take the first step to a Net Zero future. The recently published standard, BS ISO 50005 Energy […]

BSI Standards

Please be advised that a New Work Item Proposal has been loaded to the BSI Standards Development Portal for comment. We hope this will assist in increasing awareness of the Standards Development Portfolio. Any comments received will be submitted to AMT/010 Robotics, for consideration when deciding the UK response to ISO. Proposal: ISO/TC 299 N […]

Friday Brief