Friday Brief (03/11/2023) W44

Good morning and welcome to the first Friday Brief of the month! It’s going to be a busy November and we are excited to keep you updated through the buzz.

To kick things off today Jack Semple from EAMA has sent us some information on Skills. The All-Party Parliamentary Manufacturing Group (APMG) has called on the government to provide greater support for firms in the manufacturing sector “to navigate further education reform and upskill their workforce for a digital future”. Government wants to see more apprenticeships, Hollinrake said. An additional £3 billion in annual funding for further education is called for in a paper from The Economy 2030 Inquiry, a collaboration between the Resolution Foundation and the London School of Economics (LSE), funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Read more in the story below.

The ‘Share Your Skills’ campaign is calling on skilled manufacturing workers to share their valuable expertise with the next generation by teaching in further education (FE) part-time. Given our shared ambition to inspire more talent into our industry, we’d love your support in encouraging more manufacturing professionals to consider teaching part-time in further education alongside their current job. More details on the campaign can be found below.

As the leaders in outsourced calls, live chat and more, MTA Associate member, Moneypenny are having lots of conversations with manufacturing and engineering firms who are frustrated about missing calls, and potentially valuable opportunities. If you’re keen to strengthen every customer touchpoint, they can manage chats on your website in exactly the same way. Check out more in their story.

The government will next week be hosting a programme of events, webinars and workshops promoting the opportunities that global trade presents to UK businesses. International Trade Week was run for the first time in 2021 and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) says that the third iteration is “set to be the biggest yet”. The themes of the week are listed in the story below.

The UK Trade and Export Finance Forum takes place in London on November 23^rd, organised by UK Export Finance. The annual event, now in its sixth year, covers developments in trade finance with presentations, case studies, workshops and networking. The keynote speaker will be exports minister Lord Offord. Register through the link below.

MTA Member Leader Chuck International has just released details of its First Tuesday Webinar (FTW). The scheduled monthly webinar is designed to provide answers to the most common workholding questions often asked of the experienced team at Leader. Check out when the first webinar will take place in the story below.

Meet, Make, Manufacture is a speed networking event designed for manufacturing industry by manufacturing industry. Powered by MTC Events, MTC’s goal is to connect and inspire likeminded individuals to create an environment where ideas can be shared, projects can be discussed and problems solved. Read all about it in their story.

There are two main economic stories this week with the PMI data for October and the news yesterday that the Bank of England had kept its Bank Rate unchanged at 5¼% but had lowered its forecasts for the UK economy. The PMI data, which is in an article of its own, made rather gloomy reading with, in most cases, a slightly less weak situation being the best that can be said for most countries, including the UK.

In our UK Economic News article, we take a look at the Bank’s announcements along with the long awaited detail breakdown of the business investment data by sector and industry group – these have not been published for over a year, so their return is most welcome. In the European Economic News article, we cover the initial release of data for European GDP in the 3^rd quarter (the UK data won’t be out for a couple of weeks) and the latest Economic Sentiment Indicator from the European Commission which, this month, also has the latest capacity utilisation figures.

We have launched our Business Survey for October this week; it is back to our shorter version after the end-of-quarter edition in September, so we hope that all MTA members will take the opportunity to let us have your feedback – you can do this via the online form which is at https://www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-oct23. We aim to produce these reports within 10-12 working days of the end of the month so it gives a quick overview of the market situation which you can then check against your own situation/

Finally, a quick reminder that the documents and presentations from our recent Forecast Seminar are available to download from the members area of the MTA website. We have now added the notes to both of the presentations from our colleagues at Oxford Economics (these were originally uploaded as bare slides), so you might want to go back and get the full versions of these documents. They can be found at https://www.mta.org.uk/members-area/market-intelligence.

That’s it for the week. We’ll be back next Friday with more industry news and views, until then have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA.

ECONOMIC NEWS – EUROPE

European GDP, 3rd Quarter 2023: The preliminary flash estimate of GDP from Eurostat for the 3rd quarter of 2023 shows an increase of +0.1% for the EU but a fall of -0.1% for the Euro-zone. This means that compared to the 3rd quarter of 2022, seasonally adjusted GDP has grown by just +0.1% in both […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – UK

UK Interest Rate Decision and the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Report: At its meeting this week, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 6-3 to hold the Bank Rate at 5.25% – after 14 consecutive increases, this is the 2nd meeting at which the MPC has voted to hold rates (the September […]

PURCHASING MANAGERS INDEX FOR MANUFACTURING

The Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing produced by J P Morgan using the data from S&P Global fell to a 3-month low of 48.8 in October with output contracting for the 5th consecutive month and a further deterioration in new orders – it is the 14th month in a row that this has […]

MTC – MEET MAKE MANUFACTURE

9th November 2023 Manufacturing Technology Centre, Coventry, CV7 9JU Meet, Make, Manufacture is a speed networking event designed for manufacturing industry by manufacturing industry. Powered by MTC Events, our goal is to connect and inspire likeminded individuals to create an environment where ideas can be shared, projects can be discussed and problems solved. The event […]

Quench your thirst for workholding knowledge with Leader Chuck’s FTW

One of the UK’s most comprehensive providers of workholding, manufacturing ancillary systems and business efficiency services, Leader Chuck International has just released details of its First Tuesday Webinar (FTW). The scheduled monthly webinar is designed to provide answers to the most common workholding questions often asked of the experienced team at Leader. “There is no […]

UK Trade and Finance Forum 2023

The UK Trade and Export Finance Forum takes place in London on November 23rd, organised by UK Export Finance. The annual event, now in its sixth year, covers developments in trade finance with presentations, case studies, workshops and networking. The keynote speaker will be exports minister Lord Offord. The Forum is organised UK Export Finance […]

International Trade Week

MTA Associate Member – Moneypenny

As the leaders in outsourced calls, live chat and more, Moneypenny are having lots of conversations with manufacturing and engineering firms who are frustrated about missing calls, and potentially valuable opportunities. Sound familiar? Their flexible and cost-effective Telephone Answering Service is the ideal solution for you. They give you dedicated receptionists to look after calls […]

Department for Education – Share Your Skills

Skills Report

Skills report from APMG The All-Party Parliamentary Manufacturing Group (APMG) has called on the government to provide greater support for firms in the manufacturing sector “to navigate further education reform and upskill their workforce for a digital future”. Recommendations in its report on upskilling the sector in England include incentives for SMEs to take on […]

Friday Brief