Friday Brief 3/05/2024 (W18)

Good afternoon and welcome to another weekly roundup of news! We hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend, what a great way to start the month of May!

To kick things off today 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. This event will be held at the premises of Vision Engineering near Woking and is free to attend for MTA, EIA and AM-UK Members but we would ask you to register so we can make sure we have enough seats – you can do this at https://www.mta.org.uk/event/spring-economic-update/.

The Government has launched Help to Grow: Management Essentials, a new, free, bite-sized online course to help small businesses grow. Delivered by the Government in partnership with the Chartered Association of Business Schools, Help to Grow: Management Essentials covers the essential business concepts required to unlock growth through short videos featuring practical tips and resources. Check out the story below for more details.

Between January and March 2024, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued compound settlement offers to 6 UK exporters totalling over £1.3 million. Read the documents uploaded to the Gov.uk website through the link below.

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 IST/33 – “Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection” for consideration when deciding the UK response to the associated Standards Development Organisation. Check out the Scope and Purpose in the story.

Join our Associate Member Citation covering all the important details of the new Carer’s Leave Act, the changes to Maternity Leave and some of the other types of less common leave that may also come your way. Find out more below.

MMN are hosting a joint event with Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership, focusing on Metrology in Healthcare. The event will bring together speakers from NPL, the University of Huddersfield and other local leading academic institutions to discuss ongoing research on metrology in health. Read more and register through the link below.

The Purchasing Managers Index for the manufacturing sector published this week saw a mixed set of trends globally, although a majority of countries had lower readings than in April. This was true for the UK where the positive PMI in March proved to be only temporary with all but one of the elements of the calculation showing a decline.

The other economic news this week comes from Europe. The initial flash estimate for GDP shows growth for both the EU and the Euro-zone which, for the latter, brings an end to the short recession that was recorded in the final two quarters of 2023. The other source this week is the monthly European Commission Economic Sentiment Index which slipped back slightly. However, the April report also brings with it the quarterly data on capacity utilisation (and important driver of investment) and the results of the biannual investment survey.

For those companies who exhibited at MACH, the follow-up survey was launched earlier this week. This is an important source of feedback, good or bad, on the exhibition that helps us in making the next edition even better and we would be grateful if you could take time to complete the survey. The form for this is online at www.mta.org.uk/MACH2024-exhibitors-survey.

Finally, the MTA Business Survey for April opened this week and, with thanks to those who were quick off the mark and have responded already, we have our usual request for members to take a couple of minutes to let us have their feedback – you can do this via the secure online form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-apr24. This is also the final call for replies to the European AM Survey; the form for this is at https://www.mta.org.uk/additive-manufacturing-trends-survey-spring-2024.

Thank you for keeping up to date with us this week! We hope you enjoy the long weekend and we will ‘see’ you again next Friday!

Economic News

European GDP, 1st Quarter 2024: An initial estimate published by Eurostat shows GDP growth of +0.3% for both the EU and the sub-set of the Euro-zone. For the latter, this means that the recession (two or more successive quarters of negative GDP) that was recorded over the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2023 has ended. […]

PURCHASING MANAGERS INDEX FOR MANUFACTURING

The Global Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for manufacturing, produced by S&P Global and sponsored by J P Morgan, slipped back slightly in April but remains marginally positive at 50.3. This theme of a weakening is repeated in most, but not all of the individual countries and regions we cover in this report. Globally, output and […]

MMN events

MMN are hosting a joint event with Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership, focusing on Metrology in Healthcare. Tuesday 2 July 3-6pm 3M Buckley Innovation Centre The event will bring together speakers from NPL, the University of Huddersfield and other local leading academic institutions to discuss ongoing research on metrology in health. You will also get the […]

Citation – Employee leave

Running a business comes with its fair share of challenges, especially when it comes to accommodating all the different types of leave, not to mention staying up to date with all the changes to employment leave policy that have come into play. Don’t worry! Join our Associate Member Citation covering all the important details of […]

Notice to exporters from the Export Control Joint Unit

The Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) has issued a new notice to exporters highlighting recently issued compound settlements for breaches of strategic export controls. Please click on the following link for more details: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-to-exporters-202408-breaches-of-strategic-export-compound-settlement-issued The Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) has issued a new notice to exporters highlighting recently issued compound settlements for breaches of […]

NEW Help to Grow Management Essentials Course

Government launches new free management course for small businesses . The Government has launched Help to Grow: Management Essentials, a new, free, bite-sized online course to help small businesses grow. Delivered by the Government in partnership with the Chartered Association of Business Schools, Help to Grow: Management Essentials covers the essential business concepts required to unlock […]

Friday Brief