Friday Brief (26/04/2024) – W17

Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.

Day 5 of MACH 2024 was a roaring success with halls buzzing right up until the show officially closed! It was a fantastic finish to the UK’s national event for inspiring, innovating and connecting manufacturing. The MACH team would like to thank you for visiting and being part of making the show so memorable and a huge triumph. We’re so pleased that the UK’s premier manufacturing exhibition once again brought together the whole manufacturing community, from visitors and exhibitors to students and industry experts.

CECIMO are organising an event taking place on the 2^nd September. The MTI Awards aim to recognise and celebrate outstanding contributions to the machine tool industry. By participating, you have the opportunity to showcase your innovations, highlight best practices, and gain valuable recognition among industry peers. Read more details below and follow the link to submit your application.

BSI have released a new standard that is awaiting your comments. The Proposal reads: Additive manufacturing — General Principles — Framework for the Implementation of a Level System for temporarily self-sufficient systems. Find the scope and purpose below, along with the comment period end date.

Irwin Mitchell invites you to join them for a transformative webinar on cybersecurity in the manufacturing sector. Led by Chief Information Security Officer, Graham, this webinar is designed specifically for business leaders like you. Graham, a former military intelligence operator and a driving force behind cybersecurity transformation in various sectors, will guide you through the maze of cybersecurity. Check out more details below and follow the link to register.

We have a wide variety of economic news to bring you this week. The latest results from the CBI survey were mixed and although investment intentions for plant & machinery improved overall, the notable exception was among the investment (or capital) goods industries where the balance remains weak.

Turning to Europe, we have the latest data on industrial production which, while positive for February, is still some way behind the levels we were at a year ago. Eurostat has also made a small but significant revision to the GDP data which means that while it is flat for the whole of the EU, the Euro-zone now had a technical recession in the final two quarters of 2023 (like the UK, this will probably only be minor and short-lived).

This week also saw the flash estimates of the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for April. For the UK, this dipped back below the crucial 50 level having peaked just above it in March and the US saw a similar trend, recording its first sub-50 reading (just) this year. The Euro-zone (and especially Germany and France) remains weak and while India continues to boom, there were more modest improvements to the index in Japan and Australia. Also in this section we have the latest survey data on the UK machine tool and cutting tool markets.

Our 4^th economic article this week reports on the presentation given by Rhys Herbert, Senior Economist at Lloyds Bank (and long-term friend of MTA from his days running the industry department at Oxford Economics) in one of the Seminars at MACH last week. He has kindly agreed to make his slides available to members and we have added some notes taken during the presentation in the article below.

Also, for members to note, the CECIMO Global Machine Tool Report which we announced immediately before MACH (see https://www.mta.org.uk/resources/cecimo-global-machine-tool-report-2/) is now live on the MTA website (sorry, we had a small glitch when it was originally posted) and available for download by members at https://www.mta.org.uk/members-area/market-intelligence/global-mt-report/ but you will need to login to access this document as it is sold by CECIMO but with free access for members of the association.

We would like to remind members that the Spring Economic Update will be held on Thursday 16^th May. As in previous years, this will feature presentations from Andy Goodwin, Chief UK Economist at Oxford Economics who will cover the macro picture and Geoff Noon, MTA’s Statistician, who will look at the industrial detail, including our updated forecasts for the market for machine tools and cutting tools. We are finalising the venue for this and will open bookings as soon as we can, but please put this in your diary and keep an eye on the events page at https://www.mta.org.uk/event/spring-economic-update/ for the final details.

Finally, there are two surveys still open at the moment. The form for the EIA Quarterly Survey for the 1^st period of 2024 can be accessed at https://www.mta.org.uk/eia-quarterly-survey-1st-quarter-2024 and the Spring edition of the biannual European AM Trends Survey (for AM-UK members) is at https://www.mta.org.uk/additive-manufacturing-trends-survey-spring-2024.

That brings us to the end of today’s newsletter. We are keeping our fingers crossed that May brings the sunshine with it. Have great weekends all!

LLOYDS BANK ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

One of the Seminars during MACH was an economic update given by Rhys Herbert, Senior Economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. You can download the slides below and, hopefully, these notes will help to add some flavour to those pictures. The theme of the presentation is that we are still operating in uncertain times and […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – INTERNATIONAL

Flash Purchasing Managers Index, February 2024: For the UK at least, the optimism of having the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector tick above the crucial 50 level may have proved to be fleeting with the flash estimate falling back to 48.7. Just as the positive trend in March had been driven by […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – EUROPE

European Industrial Production, January 2024: The latest data from Eurostat on industrial production (IP) shows a seasonally adjusted increase of +0.7% for the EU and +0.8% for the sub-set of the Euro-zone. Despite this recent growth, compared to February 2023, total IP fell by -5.4% in the EU and by -6.4% for the Euro-zone. However, […]

CBI INDUSTRIAL TRENDS SURVEY

The latest results from the CBI Industrial Trends Survey (ITS) showed an improvement in the overall sentiment; output was broadly stable in the three months to April* after falling steadily from the start of the year and while orders are still declining, this is at a slower pace than in the January* survey. The details […]

Irwin Mitchell – Cyber Security: Safeguarding Manufacturing In The Digital Age

Did you know that 75% of organisations in the manufacturing sector admit their cyber security provider is underperforming or there’s room for improvement? This data comes from a recent study by e2e-assure. Additionally, 78% of manufacturing organisations have experienced a cyber-attack, but only 19% consider themselves resilient. The manufacturing industry is a prime target for […]

Mitigo – Understanding the limitations of cyber insurance

Cyber insurance may recoup some costs, provide cyber specialists to investigate the crisis and may even pay the ransom, but there are still issues left unresolved by insurance alone. MTA partner Mitigo Cybersecurity explain why cyber insurance isn’t a substitute for cyber risk management. Why cyber insurance isn’t a substitute for cyber risk management. – […]

ISO/ASTM PWI 52966 – Link to New Work Item Proposal for wider circulation

Proposal: Additive manufacturing — General Principles — Framework for the Implementation of a Level System for temporarily self-sufficient systems Please visit: ISO/ASTM PWI 52966 Comment period end date: 07/06/2024 Scope This document defines a standardized framework for implementing a level system for temporarily self sufficient systems in additive manufacturing. It defines principles, criteria, and provides […]

MTI Awards 2024 Now Open!

The MTI Awards aim to recognise and celebrate outstanding contributions to the machine tool industry. By participating, you have the opportunity to showcase your innovations, highlight best practices, and gain valuable recognition among industry peers. Additionally, the awards serve as a platform for networking and knowledge sharing, providing a unique opportunity to connect with professionals […]