Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
With MACH 2016 just over a week away, today is your last chance to register for Fast Track entry to the exhibition. So make sure you and your customers sign-up before 4pm today. Of course you can continue to register right up to arriving at the exhibition, but fast track entry means that your pass will be mailed directly to you before the show and you can beat any queues.
We are keen to continue to promote our members and our industry whenever the opportunity arises. With that in mind we would like members to provide us with short case studies on how investing in technology has dramatically affected your business or your customers business. Full details of what we are looking for can be found below and if you have any question please contact our PR and Comms man, Tom Lane, via email tlane@mta.org.uk.
It is just 51 weeks until the next MTA Annual Dinner and for 2017 we’re returning to London. On the 23rd March the MTA and its members will be taking over the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, so save the date.
Cooper & Turner apprentice Sam Brookfield, from Sheffield, won a trip to Brazil for being awarded the prestigious title of ‘Apprentice of the Year’ at the second-annual apprentice awards ceremony, held by the AMRC Training Centre on Thursday 24 March at the University of Sheffield. Find out what Sam will be up to in Brazil and all of the rest of the winners from last week’s awards. Sam will also be appearing at MACH 2016 on Tuesday 12th April as part of the seminar programme.
UK exporters are being sought for The Manufacturer magazine and Global Trade Reviews’ UK National Awards for Export Excellence (UKNAEE). Details on how to take part can be found below.
NPL are hosting a North of England Open House on 17th May, you will hear how good measurement is helping manufacturers to improve their capabilities and see state-of-the-art equipment being demonstrated. For details on how to attend please see the story below.
The Purchasing Managers Indices (PMI) released this morning offer some mixed messages; both the UK and the euro-zone edged up and most of the Asian countries also improved (although China and Korea remain below 50), but there was a move into negative territory for both Japan and Turkey. Back in the UK, the ONS revised economic growth upwards for the final quarter of 2015 to +0.6% and for the year as a whole to +2.3%. Data on investment suggested a slightly weak end to 2015, but there was growth of 4.3% for manufacturing as a whole across the year and the Engineering and Vehicles sub-sector recorded an increase of +7.8% compared to 2014.
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday, until then have a great weekend.