Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
MTA CEO James Selka is currently at IMTEX in Bangalore, India. If you are also out in India and would like to meet up with James drop him an email (jsleka@mta.org.uk or head to the MTA stand which can be found in the international association’s zone. We’ll have a report on the show in next week’s edition of the Brief.
The Government published its Green Paper on Industrial Strategy this week. It is a major step forward and begins an in-depth consultation process with which the MTA will be heavily engaged. MTA CEO James Selka said “We welcome the priority the Prime Minister has placed on Industrial Strategy. It could be an important contributor to creating an environment that promotes the long term investment that we need to deliver a step change in productivity through technology and skills.” Read more of James’ reaction to the Green Paper within the Brief.
EAMA - the Engineering & Machinery Alliance, of which MTA is a member - have been engaging with the Government Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU). In these exchanges it has become clear that member firms are uniquely able to provide a fact-based picture of how leaving the EU is likely to affect our supply chains which will be really useful to DExEU in the Brexit negotiations. Please see the story below and contribute to the survey. https://www.mta.org.uk/eamamta-brexit-impact-survey.
Can you escape from a remote location using just your engineering skills and ingenuity? If you think you can, we want you to apply for Channel 4’s brand new ultimate engineering challenge to test you to the limit. Dropped in a remote and undisclosed location a small team of engineers will have only their imagination, resourcefulness and what they can find from the debris of a crash to create a vehicle to escape from the scene.
The Advanced Structural Testing Centre (ASTC) of the AMRC with Boeing is working in collaboration with UK company TISICS exploring the development of materials for demanding environments, such as transport, energy and the manufacturing sectors. TISICS specialise in the development and manufacture of high strength lightweight titanium metal matrix composites.
Fronius UK will be hosting an Open House at their Technology Centre in Milton Keynes on 26th April 2017 from 10am. Don’t miss this great opportunity to step inside the world of Fronius and see the newest technology live in action.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) invites you to participate in the “Airports Outward Mission to Russia: FIFA World Cup 2018 and beyond” on 20-24 March 2017 in Moscow and Krasnodar. If this is something that interests you please find all the details you need to apply in the story below.
If you’re a start-up working in the intelligent mobility space, you could benefit from working alongside London Midland in their Accelerator Programme. The Accelerator programmes are a way for fledgling companies (usually tech-based, although the concept has spilt out into other areas) to validate their idea, gain customers and raise investment in comparatively short space of time. More details on how to get involved are found in the story below.
The UK Industrial Vision Association (UKIVA) has developed a brand new event for the imaging industry in the UK. The first ever UKIVA Machine Vision Conference & Exhibition (www.machinevisionconference.co.uk) will take place at Arena MK in Milton Keynes on 27 April 2017.
The UK economy grew at +0.6% in the final quarter of 2016, but for the year as a whole, the pace of growth slowed slightly to +2.0% (from +2.2% in 2015). Manufacturing was slightly larger in 2016, just about reversing the decline in 2015, but we will need to wait for the detailed industry data in a couple of weeks’ time. There was good news from the latest CBI Industrial Trends Survey with both orders and output improving and, perhaps most notably for us, there was an improvement in investment intentions, especially in some of our key customer industries. Finally this week, some more positive news from SMMT who announced increases in UK production of both cars and engines for 2016 but, in a separate statement made while giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, SMMT said that many carmakers are putting off investment until there is more clarity over the UK's trade relations with the EU.
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news, until then have a great weekend.
