Friday Brief Intro (30/06/2023) W26

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief. We would like to apologise for the absence of last week’s newsletter. Unfortunately, we had some technical issues; however, that does mean that this week’s Friday Brief is packed full of great stories!

To kick things off today we would like to introduce you to an opportunity from CECIMO. The MTI Awards aim to celebrate the best innovations that push the boundaries of what is possible in the machine tool industry. CECIMO invites you to share your efforts that provide a competitive advantage and drive productivity, growth and profitability to new heights. Check out details to apply in the story below.

BSI have to new standards for us this week. The two proposals read: Ergonomics of human-system interaction/ User assistance within interactive systems and General requirements for establishing muscular strength databases. Take a look at the scopes and purposes below.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales is running a webinar called “Tax reliefs for growing in manufacturing” on July 4^th. The webinar has been organised by the ICAEW’s manufacturing and small and micro business communities. Details on what is included in the webinar can be found in the story.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its REACH Regulatory Management Options Analysis (RMOA) report for poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The RMOA has adopted a narrower working definition of PFAS, removing the criterion that a single isolated methylene group (-CF2-) is sufficient for classification as a PFAS. Please have a read of the full article below for more details.

Industrial Plant & Equipment is proud to announce the launch of the new Industrial Plant & Equipment Awards (IP&E Awards). The IP&E Awards are free-to-enter and showcase a variety of visions of industrial excellence, reflecting the diversity and best-in-class quality which are synonymous with UK industry. More information can be found in the story below.

Jack Semple, Secretary of EAMA, has penned two articles for us this week. The first contains some headline notes from the Trade Unlocked conference held this week and focuses on comments made by the Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP, about the Labour Party’s plans to get closer to the EU without a return to either the Single Market or the Customs Union – no government ministers attended the event. The second article looks at a report from the Resolution Foundation that focuses on the need for the UK to have a trade strategy to deal with the changes in our trading relationships around the world in the light of Brexit.

The Department for Business & Trade is looking for feedback on businesses experiences of managing critical supply chains and disruption to help the Department in understanding the issues companies face, how they have dealt with them and the barriers to building resilience – more details and a link to the survey are in the item below.

The Education and Development Committee is looking for new support from MTA membership. The committee are also looking to bring some apprentices and graduates on board to help shape the MTA Education and Development Policies. Take a look at the terms and conditions below and if you’re interested, send an email to Danny (details below).

Have you taken on a new apprentice or supporting your current staff to develop their skills through training? You may be eligible for MTA Apprenticeship Grant of up to £4,000 or a Training Grant of up to £750. Find out what we offer in the story.

Shelley College in Huddersfield will be holding a careers convention on Wednesday 11^th October between 2pm and 4pm. If you’re interested, please visit the story below to find out more.

Moonshooting are an organisation capable of delivering professional soft skills training, with a heavy bias toward the manufacturing industry. Owner, James Leet, is an accomplished trainer, coach and facilitator who has decades of hands-on operational experience at senior level within some of the industry’s top brands. Read a few words from him on the subject below.

Digital transformation has a huge impact on competitiveness and efficiency, however many manufacturers have questions about the complexity, cost and relevance – especially smaller businesses. Join our partners Make UK at a digital manufacturing site to discuss how to execute digitalisation, maximise its capabilities, and seek financial support. Check out the dates and what is included below.

We want to share some exciting news; Bonham & Brook has been working on a new energy price relief scheme that came into effect April 2023 and runs until March 2024. It’s available to most manufacturing companies and is a 5p saving on their electric unit rate and 3p on gas. This is not an automatic discount applied like the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, you must meet the qualifying criteria in the application. Register through the link in the story.

The EU’s new Machinery Regulation is expected to be published in the Official Journal early in July and applied 42 months later, from January 2027. The UK will have to decide how to respond to the Regulation, which will supercede the 2006 Machinery Directive from which current UK rules are derived. Find out more details from Jack Semple in the story.

Covering the past two weeks, there is a lot of economic news, so we have two articles again this week. The UK piece leads with the UK national accounts which were published this morning; although there is no change to the overall trend with GDP growth of +0.1% confirmed for the 1^st quarter of the year, output of the manufacturing sector has been edged up and there is also an upward revision for the investment figures. This article also takes a look at the decision by the MPC to increase the UK Bank Rate, including the latest view of the manufacturing sector from the Bank’s Agents and we cover the results of the latest edition of the CBI Industrial Trends Survey.

The lead article in the international economic news article is the latest figures from the European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Indicator which showed a further fall in the overall reading, with declining industry confidence leading most other sectors on a downward trend. We also have a summary of the new Economic Toolbox from CECIMO, take a look at the latest manufacturing technology data from the US market and have a brief summary of the latest long-term forecasts for the civilian aerospace market with both Airbus and Boeing releasing their latest predictions ahead of the Paris Air Show last week.

That concludes the Friday Brief for this week! Thank you for keeping up to date with us and we hope you have a great weekend!

ECONOMIC NEWS – INTERNATIONAL

European Commission Economic Sentiment Indicator, June 2023: The European Commission (EC) draws from a range of surveys to construct confidence indicators for five sectors of the economy and uses these to make up its Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI). There was another fall in the overall ESI in June* for both the EU and the Euro-zone […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – UK

UK National Accounts, 1st Quarter 2022 – GDP & Investment: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released data on the UK National Accounts this morning. This showed no change to the estimate of GDP growth of +0.1% compared to the previous quarter, leaving the UK economy and just +0.2% higher than a year earlier. The […]

EU Machinery Regulation

Energy Saving Deadline Fast Approaching

Make UK and Amazon Web Services (AWS): Demystifying the Digital Journey – Step by Step

Digital transformation has a huge impact on competitiveness and efficiency, however many manufacturers have questions about the complexity, cost and relevance – especially smaller businesses. Join our partners Make UK at a digital manufacturing sites to discuss how to execute digitalisation, maximise its capabilities, and seek financial support. 12th July at Apollo Tyres in London, […]

Training Opportunity

MTA Apprenticeship and Training Grants & Schools Careers Convention Support

E&D Committee Members

The Education and Development Committee is looking for new support from MTA membership. The committee are also looking to bring some apprentices and graduates on board to help shape the MTA Education and Development Policies. Education & Development Committee Member Terms & Conditions    The E&D Committee membership will be reviewed once every four years, […]

Global Supply Chains & Economic Security

The Global Supply Chains and Economic Security Directorate in the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) is looking for feedback on businesses experiences of managing critical supply chains and disruption. Minimising supply chain disruption continues to be a Ministerial priority. This survey will help the Department build a picture of: Through this survey they are […]

Manufacturing shift from Brexit – report

As Brexit progresses, the UK is likely to see a “shift to lower-productivity manufacturing, reinforcing weak economy-wide productivity”. Higher-productivity manufacturing will decline as the UK is left out of deeply-integrated European supply chains. Jack Semple (Secretary of EAMA) notes that these are findings of a report, Trading Up, from the Resolution Foundation (RF), a well-respected […]

IP&E Awards showcase industrial excellence

HSE publishes analysis concerning the future regulation of PFAS in Great Britain

Tax reliefs for growth

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales is running a webinar called “Tax reliefs for growing in manufacturing” on July 4th, between 1 and 2. The webinar will cover The webinar has been organised by the ICAEW’s manufacturing and small and micro business communities. There is a small charge, £15, for non-members. Details […]

BSI Standards

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. Scope This part of ISO 9241 provides requirements and […]

CECIMO Machine Tools Innovation (MTI) Awards

Are you an innovator in the machine tools sector? Do you want to showcase your exceptional contributions and inspire others? We are calling on all players in the machine tool industry to enter the Machine Tools Innovation Awards (MTI Awards)! The MTI Awards aim to celebrate the best innovations that push the boundaries of what […]

Friday Brief