Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
Over recent months the MTA has been conducting a survey of its membership over the issue of the UK’s continued membership of the EU. You can see the results of that in this week’s story (spoiler – strong support to remain). If you have any questions or further contributions on this issue please contact Paul O’Donnell, the MTA’s Head of External Affairs, at podonnell@mta.org.uk. MTA CEO James Selka was featured in the Guardian over the weekend highlighting the risks of Brexit, you can read his contribution here http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network-partner-zone-lloyds-tsb/2016/jan/28/export-predictions-trends-ukti-government .
Still on the topic of Europe, the German British Forum (GBF) and the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), presents the GBF 2016 conference “Britain’s Future in Europe – Anglo-German Perspectives” at the Carpenter’s Hall, London, on 3 March 2016. Find out more details on this event below.
Gloucestershire Growth Hub, BPE Solicitors and the Innovation agency BEAF are hosting a joint Event to help companies who are developing and supporting innovation to unlock the potential for growth within an organisation. To find out how to attend follow this link http://www.thegrowthhub.biz/events/growth-through-innovation/.
CECIMO has prepared a booklet to help companies find technology transfer centres (such as the UK Catapults) in the field of machine tools. You can access the full list in the story below.
The first AMRC Forum of 2016 will focus on the latest developments in grinding technology and reveal the extent to which grinding is being used as a mainstream machining process. This will include discussions on the technical and commercial challenges involved and examine the trends and experience of end-users and equipment providers. Find out how you can attend this event below.
The main economic story this week is the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for January which had a mixed, but generally positive outlook; the PMI for the UK picked up a little, with the investment goods sector leading the way and while the Euro-zone reading fell, it was still at a healthy positive level. Elsewhere, India saw an improvement that moved from negative to positive territory, while Korea went the other way. The other main item this week is the European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Indicator which took a bit of a hit, although it remains above where it was at the start of 2015; there was more positive news with an increase in capacity utilisation being recorded for the Euro-zone (to its highest level since the recession) and the EU28 as a whole, although the UK saw a fall in the utilisation rate.
That is all for this week, have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA.