Friday Brief Intro 27/01/2023

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! The first month of the year is almost over which means 2023 is officially underway! We hope you are ready for all the exciting things the industry will bring us this year!

To kick things off this afternoon I’d like to remind you that the MTA’s Annual Dinner taking place at JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel in London is only a few weeks away! If you still haven’t bought your ticket to our grand event, please follow this link to the website to book your space and find out more – https://www.mta.org.uk/event/mta-annual-dinner-2023

The Hannover Fair for industrial technology is the only event where companies from mechanical and electrical engineering come together with those from the digital and energy sectors to collectively present solutions. Take advantage of the free ticket link found in the story below.

The MTA has been given a table at the National Sales Conference 2023 (https://www.nsconference.co.uk). The event will take place on 23rd November at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham. For a limited time, members can get exclusive discounted tickets. Find out more details below.

BSI have released a new standard which is ready and waiting for your comments. The proposal is regarding Visibility and safety. Check out the details in the story below.

ARIA, long-anticipated Advanced Research and Invention Agency, has been formally launched by science minister George Freeman. It is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by BEIS, but government says it has “a unique level of freedom which puts trust in the decisions of experts in their field and empowers them to quickly allocate funding in support of their ambitious vision”. Jack Semple has put together this short article below and please take a look at the full article on the government website through the link in the story.

Jack Semple (EAMA) reports this week on a speech made by the Trade Secretary, Kemi Badenoch in which she set out her five priorities for the Department. This emphasised a shift in focus towards Asia and the possibility of the UK joining the CPTPP, although one of her fellow tory MP’s pointed out the risks this could pose to the UK’s “hard won sovereignty”.

Our economic news is again split into two parts covering UK specific data and what we have termed “international” this week. In the UK article, we take a look at the results of the CBI Industrial Trends Survey which this month also includes the capacity utilisation and investment intentions data; this piece also covers the UK automotive production data that SMMT have released this week – a shortage of electronic components meant that car output fell again in 2022 and this, along with the move to electric vehicles, meant that engine production was also down on the previous year.

In the international article, we cover the flash estimates of the PMI for the manufacturing sector; this includes the UK where the reading continues to be firmly negative, although slightly less so than in December. The other item in this article summarises the latest State of Trade report from CELIMO, the European grouping of associations representing importers and distributors.

That concludes the Friday Brief for this week! We hope you all have a great weekend and we’ll be back with some more great stories for you next week!

ECONOMIC NEWS – INTERNATIONAL

Flash Purchasing Managers Index, January 2023: The flash manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the UK published earlier this week showed an improvement from the December figure but at 46.7, it is still firmly in negative territory. The output element of the index was also higher than last month (and at a 6-month high) […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – UK

CBI Industrial Trends Survey, January 2023: The results from the latest CBI Industrial Trends Survey (ITS) point to output being broadly flat, following a decline in the December survey, although the reading for the latest 3 months is still slightly below the long-run average. This data was collected between 19th December and 12th January, so […]

Trade – Badenoch stakes claim to growth

Trade secretary Kemi Badenoch has stressed growth at a speech in London – see https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/trade-secretary-my-top-five-priorities-for-trade. The Department for Trade “is the government’s flagship economic growth department … everything DIT does is about creating economic growth,” she said. Badenoch set out her own five priorities – three weeks after prime minister has set out his five priorities, the […]

ARIA achieves lift-off

ARIA, long-anticipated Advanced Research and Invention Agency, has been formally launched by science minister George Freeman. Formation of the agency was championed by Brexit campaigner and former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings and tasked with creating “transformational research programmes with the potential to create new technological capabilities for the benefit of humanity”. It is an […]

Automation and robotics innovation

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is providing funding for “innovation in late-stage robotics and automation to increase productivity, sustainability and resilience within manufacturing processes”. The aim is to develop and demonstrate robotics and automation that overcome a technical barrier in manufacturing and can be used in factories. Firms are invited to bid […]

FREE TICKETS FOR THE HANNOVER FAIR

The Hannover Fair will be taking place this year from 17 – 21 April 2023 at Hannover Messe. https://www.hannovermesse.de/en/? The world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology is the only event where companies from mechanical and electrical engineering come together with those from the digital and energy sectors to collectively present solutions. Members can take advantage […]

National Sales Conference 2023

The MTA has been given a table at the National Sales Conference 2023 (https://www.nsconference.co.uk). The event will take place on 23rd November at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham. MTA Members can get exclusive discounted tickets to the event for a limited time. Having attended the event before I can tell you it is really […]

BSI Standards Update

Please be advised that a New Work Item Proposal has been loaded to the BSI Standards Development Portal for comment. Any comments received will be submitted to the national committee PH/9 “Applied ergonomics ” for consideration when deciding the UK response to the associated Standards Development Organisation. Proposal: ISO/PWI 23456-2.2 Dynamic signs in physical environments […]

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