Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
We’d like to draw your attention to our AGM which will take place on 2 December 2015 at the IET, Austin Court, Birmingham. Please register for this event here.
Another quick reminder that our MACH 2016 Exhibitor Marketing day will take place at the NEC, Birmingham next week Wednesday 21st October. To book your FREE place for you and your colleagues, please click here and complete the form. We have a packed schedule of speakers and the day is designed to ensure you get the most out of the exhibition, so make sure you can come along.
The OECD have just released the final deliverables of their Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan. This includes new guidelines in relation to the implementation of IP Boxes such as the UK Patent Box Regime. We’ll have more on these developments in the coming weeks, so keep your eye on the Friday Brief for more information.
The Greenwich Manufacturing Group is a cross-faculty initiative at the University of Greenwich that has been set up to help support the development of internal and external collaborations in manufacturing. The First GMG Greenwich Manufacturing Evening, 3 November 2015, 5-7pm. This event is free to register please follow this link http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-new-manufacturing-era-opportunities-for-the-uk-tickets-18756829181?aff=eivtefrnd.
Smaller manufacturers put their faith in ‘people power’ to solve productivity puzzle, the last MAS Barometer of the year is now out, see the below story for their findings.
The MTA Business Survey is still open and we’d encourage all members to contribute – the on-line form is available at http://www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-sept15.
The latest data on manufacturing output for the UK points to a continuation of the recent trend of strong levels of activity in Automotive and Aerospace, balanced by flat activity levels for Metal Products and falling output in the Machinery sector; for the last of these sectors, output levels are now not much above where they reached at the height of the recession and although this is partly due to some numbers that we just don’t believe in January 2013, it is also clear that this sector is suffering more than most others from the weakness in global activity. In Europe, Capital Goods output fell in August, but remains one of the strongest performing sub-sectors when compared to a year ago; we need to see over the next few months whether this is a turning point or just a blip over the summer holidays. This theme of strong Auto and Aero sectors is also reflected in data from the USA.
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news.