Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
The referendum on the UK’s continued membership of the EU will be one of the most important issues in politics over the next couple of years.
It is some years since the last full membership survey on this subject, so we would very much appreciate it if you were able to take a few moments to take part in this online survey to help us refresh the MTA’s position and identify priorities for reform.
Please follow the link: www.mta.org.uk/eu-referendum-survey
The MTA is pleased to be a sponsoring Trends in Advanced Machining, Manufacturing
And Materials (TRAM) 2015, which is held on 10th - 11th November 2015.
TRAM is an international aerospace conference and table top exhibition focused on transferring advanced manufacturing technologies to the business leaders, managers and engineers who lead or play a key role in a facility that serves the aerospace sector. For full details of how to attend this event, please see the below story.
Bookings are now open for the MTA’s Annual Members' Golf Day on Wednesday 16th September 2015 which will be held at the prestigious Warwickshire Golf & Country Club. Book your place now at www.mta.org.uk/annual-mta-members-golf-day-2015.
The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Ultra Precision will be delivering this Precision Engineering Industrial Short Course at Cranfield University, UK, 21-25 September 2015. Fill details on speakers and programme for this event can be found below.
There are two important data series published this week, with some slightly mixed messages for our industry; the overall PMI numbers are holding up in the UK, but the detail suggests that Capital Goods are below 50 and it is clear that export activity remains weak. Elsewhere in the world, the PMI data is generally a bit better than it was in June.
At a macro-economic level, this week also saw the new arrangements following the monthly meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee where by the announcement is accompanied by the minutes (revealing the voting behind the decision) and, on a quarterly basis, publication of the Inflation Report. All this revealed that the MPC voted 8-1 to maintain the Bank’s base rate at +0.5%, their assessment of GDP for the UK was revised up slightly and, in the face of a strengthening currency, the path of inflation, although still upward, has been eased as imported goods are cheaper.
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday with more news. Until then have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA.