Friday Brief (08/09/2023) (W36)

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! We hope you are all keeping cool in this hot weather and are looking forward to a glorious weekend!

We would like to begin by drawing your attention to our True Impact on Manufacturing Report. We will be launching an updated version to reflect economic changes following the pandemic. We are looking to members to sponsor the updated report so if you are interested, please check out the story below.

You are invited to join AMUK for their annual Members Forum for the afternoon. We would like to welcome you along for lunch and to network with other MTA, EIA and AMUK Members. The afternoon takes place in Rocester at J.C.B Excavators Group R&D Ltd on October 3rd 2023 from 13:00-15:00 with a lunch buffet provided. Check out the full afternoon schedule in the story below.

The Government announced this week that the UK has “associated” with the EU Horizon Europe programme for long-term research projects – we have more details, including contact points for funding, in the article below.

Join the Made Smarter Team for an unmissable opportunity to unlock the potential of digital transformation and smart manufacturing for your SME business. Join them on September 20th, 2023, as they host the Made Smarter 4.0 SME Impact Showcase, in collaboration with Siemens, at their prestigious Smart Factory facility in Congleton. Register through the link in their story.

The MTA Forecast Seminar will be held on the morning of Thursday 19^th October at Cranfield University. Check out all the details in the story and don’t forget to book your space on our website today!

Our economic news this week starts with an update of the Purchasing Managers Index data for August covering the countries that had not released their data by the time we went to press last Friday. This is mainly the Americas where the index was mostly lower than in July. However, the global manufacturing PMI edged up while still remaining below the crucial 50 level for the 12^th consecutive month. The other news is the downward revision for GDP in the Euro-zone for the 2^nd quarter – however, this is not as bad as it first appears as it comes because of an upward revision to the previous couple of quarters, most notably in Germany where a recession over the turn of the year has now been revised away.

Finally, the August edition of the MTA Business Survey is underway and you can find the form at https://www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-aug23/ and, with thanks to those who have already responded, we hope you can spare a couple of minutes to give us your input as we compile this quick overview of the situation across the manufacturing technology spectrum in the UK,

That concludes the Friday Brief for another week! We hope you enjoy reading and look forward to ‘seeing’ you again next week! Have a great weekend!

ECONOMIC NEWS

Purchasing Managers Index, August 2023 (update): As promised, this note is to update the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data that was released last Friday. The overall global index improved slightly but at 49.0 it extends the run of negative values (below the crucial 50 level that marks the boundary between expansion and contraction) to […]

MTA FORECAST SEMINAR

The MTA Forecast Seminar will be held on the morning of Thursday 19th October at Cranfield University. The agenda will follow the usual pattern; we will start with a look at the global economy, before moving on to the key parts of the manufacturing sector and concluding with our new forecasts for the machine tool […]

Do you know another business that could benefit from Made Smarter grant funding or support?

Invite companies in your network to meet the Made Smarter team. Meet other SMEs who have benefitted from digital transformation at our event hosted in the Siemens smart factory Congleton on 20th September. Book Now – Limited Spaces

Horizon Europe

The Government announced this week that the UK has now associated with the EU Horizon Europe programme (but not Euratom). This follows the intensified negotiations that have taken place following the acceptance of the Windsor Agreement. You should note that the negotiated terms also include an automatic “clawback” which allows the UK to be compensated […]

AMUK Members Forum – You’re invited!

You are invited to join AMUK for their annual Members Forum for the afternoon. We would like to welcome you along for lunch and to network with other MTA, EIA and AMUK Members. The afternoon takes place in Rocester at J.C.B Excavators Group R&D Ltd on October 3rd 2023 from 13:00-15:00 with a lunch buffet provided. Take a look at the […]

The True Impact of Manufacturing Report

We are launching an update to the original True Impact of Manufacturing Report to reflect economic changes following the pandemic at MACH 2024! We already have some high-profile sponsors and would like to open the opportunity up to our members as well. We would like to see if anyone would be interested in being apart […]

Friday Brief