Friday Brief (14/06/2024) W24

Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! For those of you who were out of the office at various exhibitions last week, we hope you had successful experiences!

To start our newsletter today we would like to bring your attention to an MTA event, one we know you have been waiting for! Our Annual Members’ Golf Day will be on Wednesday 18th September 2024 and will be at The Leicestershire Golf Club. Register in the story below, don’t miss the chance to win some great prizes and compete against other associations!

The MTA has welcomed 3 new members to our membership this week. Sorted Machine Sales Ltd, FINALLY Agency and Fourjaw Manufacturing Analytics Ltd all now have profiles on our Members Directory so make sure you find out what they do in the story below.

Freight prices continued to spike last month with analysts warning of an early ‘peak season’ for ocean shipping, as the Red Sea crisis continues to disrupt international supply chains. The Freightos Global Container Index increased from just over US$2,500 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU) at the beginning of May to just over $4,000 per FEU as of 6 June. Prices were up across most major routes. “Ocean peak season’s early arrival together with Red Sea diversions straining capacity and schedules continued to result in worsening congestion, equipment shortages and elevated prices this week”, said Freightos’ head of research, Judah Levine, in an email to customers. Take a look at the full report below.

HMRC have announced that a new service enabling traders to claim back VAT and import duty on import declarations made through CDS is now live. Users must be subscribed to CDS to access the service, and businesses that are VAT-registered can only claim import duty via the service; they must use their VAT return to claim back VAT. Take a look at the services in the story.

This week we had a job application come through from Vijeth Bhat who recently completed his Masters in Operation and Supply Chain Management at Swansea University. He is looking for a supply chain management role. Check out more details and email us to view his resume.

Sami has two new BSI Standard Proposal’s waiting for your comment. The first proposal reads: Automation systems and integration — Industrial digital twin interface architecture and the second Automation systems and integration — Core terminology for simulation data management. Please take a look at the scope and purpose below.

Energy tax relief schemes, such as the Energy-Intensive Industries (EII) exemption scheme or the Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption scheme, help energy intensive industries in the UK to alleviate the financial burden associated with high energy consumption. By taking advantage of energy tax relief, your business can significantly reduce its energy tax costs. This means more capital stays within your organisation, enabling you to reinvest in innovation, employee development, or other strategic initiatives and improve your bottom line. To find more about the scheme, read more details in the story.

This week saw data on both manufacturing output and GDP published for the UK and Europe and we take a look at these in separate articles this week. For the UK, despite a dip in April, the underlying trends still look to be positive, although growth is perhaps best described as steady rather than spectacular, while in Europe there is a similar pattern, although industrial production is still some way behind where it was a year ago. We also report on the latest data for the US market in the international article.

Finally, the MTA Business Survey for May is still open for your input and you can find the secure online form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-may24 – we hope you can spare a couple of minutes to help us build an up-to-date overview of the state of trade across the manufacturing technology spectrum in the UK.

That concludes our Friday Brief for this week! We hope you have a great weekend and we look forward to bringing you more stories next week!

ECONOMIC NEWS – INTERNATIONAL

European Industrial Production, April 2024: Eurostat has also published its sectoral output data although they use Industrial Production (IP) as the top-level aggregate; while the largest part of this is the manufacturing sector, it also includes energy and utilities (but not construction) and the breakdown of the total by sector misses out having a figure […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – UK

UK Manufacturing Output , April 2024: The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that UK manufacturing output fell by -1.4% but over the 3-months ending in that month, it was +1.0% higher than in the previous period. The reduction in the monthly trend was mainly due to a sharp fall in […]

The MTA Golf Day is back!

The MTA is pleased to announce the Annual Members’ Golf Day will be on Wednesday 18th September 2024 and will be at The Leicestershire Golf Club (Leicestershire Golf Club Evington Lane, Leicester, LE5 6DJ). Join us at this premium golf club that has a long history in the city and county. You will enjoy a fantastic […]

Welcome New MTA Members!

The MTA would like to welcome 3 new companies to our Membership! Sorted Machine Sales Ltd, FINALLY Agency and Fourjaw Manufacturing Analytics Ltd all went live this week. Sorted Machine Sales Ltd Sorted Machine Sales are a machine tool servicing, sales & reconditioning company. They are also stockists of a wide range of Bridgeport spares […]

Energy Tax Relief

What Is Energy Tax Relief? Energy tax relief schemes, such as the Energy-Intensive Industries (EII) exemption scheme or the Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption scheme, help energy intensive industries in the UK to alleviate the financial burden associated with high energy consumption. By taking advantage of energy tax relief, your business can significantly reduce its […]

ISO/NP TS 25271 – Link to New Work Item Proposal

Any comments received will be submitted to the national committee “AMT/4 – Industrial data and manufacturing interfaces” for consideration when deciding the UK response to the associated Standards Development Organisation. Please visit: ISO/NP TS 25271 Comment period end date:30/06/2024 Scope Automation systems and integration – Industrial digital twin interface architecture specifies the architectural components of […]

Job Application for Supply Chain Management Role – Reference: Muralidhara Rao

Vijeth Bhat recently completed his Masters in Operation and Supply Chain Management at Swansea University. He is reaching out to express his keen interest in joining the industry in a supply chain management role. Vijeth is eager to leverage his academic background and theoretical knowledge to contribute effectively to supply chain management operations. He is […]

Traders now able to claim back VAT and Import Duty on CDS

HMRC have announced that a new service enabling traders to claim back VAT and import duty on import declarations made through CDS is now live. The service can be accessed via these two links: Users must be subscribed to CDS to access the service, and businesses that are VAT-registered can only claim import duty via […]

Friday Brief