FB Intro 22/04/2022

Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief. We hope you all had a good Easter break.

As the war in Ukraine continues we have details from our HR partner Croner on employing Ukrainian refugees. This is the first in a series of guides we will be publishing over the coming weeks.

The Institute of Export and International Trade held a webinar on the plastic packaging tax. This issue is likely to affect many of our members and so we recommend you take a look and the recording below.

We have three standards under reviews this week; one looking at robotics and the other two at additive manufacturing. Find out how you can comment below.

Details of National Manufacturing Day on 7th July are also below. Find out what activities are planned and how you can get involved.

It is a quiet week for economic news with the Easter period having pushed back publication dates by a few days, so the only regular data we have this week is the European industrial production figures for February which showed an improvement on the January numbers, although the capital goods group was among the weakest of the sub-sectors. This week’s economic news article also includes news of the data exchange coordinated by CECIMO which covers 12 European countries, 4 in Asia and the USA.

We currently have a number of surveys running; these include the MACH 2022 exhibitors survey which you can access at www.mta.org.uk/MACH2022-exhibitors-survey, the new EIA quarterly survey which is available at https://www.mta.org.uk/EIA-survey%20Q1-22 and the MTA Business Survey for March at https://www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-mar22 – we will be closing the latter of these early next week. We would encourage members – or exhibitors of course in the case of the MACH survey – to let us have your input as soon as possible so we can complete these surveys in the near future.

That’s all this week, have a great weekend and we will be back next Friday!

New plastic packaging tax: ‘Understand who’s responsible for paying,’ importers are warned

Businesses involved in the use or manufacture of plastic packaging have been told they need to establish at what point the new Plastic Packaging Tax needs to be paid within their supply chains. The tax was introduced on 1 April 2022 and applies to any business that manufactures or imports 10 tonnes or more per […]

BSI Standards Update

This week we have three standards under review Proposal: ISO/TC 299 N 518, ISO/NP 22166-203 Robotics — Modularity for service robots — Part 203: Information Model for Hardware Please visit: http://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/9022-07016 Comment period end date: 27/05/2022 Scope This document complies with the ISO 22166-1 and CD 22166-200 family standards providing requirements and guidelines on modularity for […]

Employing Ukrainian Refugees Guide: Part One

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many UK businesses have stepped up to help. Marks & Spencer, Lush, and PwC, just to name a few, are offering jobs to Ukrainian refugees. If you’re in a position where you would like to provide work, but aren’t sure where to start, we’ve got you covered. […]

National Manufacturing Day– 7th July

On 7 July 2022 Manufacturers will pledge to throw open their doors in a UK wide Open House. Local communities will have the chance to see the potential careers and jobs on offer within the wonderfully diverse manufacturing sector, aiming to engage with all age groups – from school leavers, graduates, people looking to reskill […]

ECONOMIC NEWS

European Industrial Production, February 2022: Figures released by Eurostat this week showed total industrial production in the Euro-zone was +0.7% higher than in January while the EU as a whole showed a rise of +0.6%. This means that growth over the past 12 months (since February 2021) was +2.0% in the Euro-zone and +3.0% for […]