Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
First up we have produced a highlights video from this year’s Technology, Design and Innovation, so give it a watch and check out all the hard the hard work the finalist put in to their projects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K031umgad1g&feature=youtu.be.
If you have been a full, member of the MTA for at least one year, and your company has an annual turnover of £10million or less, you may be eligible to apply for one of our apprenticeship grants or loans.
MetLase, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Unipart Group, has become the latest member of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), bringing its world leading technology to the partnership. Find out more within the brief.
The MTA Business Survey for July has been launched, you can access the on-line form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-jul17 - we look forward to hearing from you.
During EMO, CELIMO (the European group for Associations representing importers and distributors in our sector) will be holding an International meeting which will feature presentations on the economic and market situation in Europe, Japan, India and the USA. So if you would like to attend, please contact Geoff Noon at MTA (e-mail: gnoon@mta.org.uk) for a registration form and more details.
The economic news this week was generally good, with a strong set of numbers for most countries in the Purchasing Managers Index for manufacturing - the UK saw a small increase and while the Euro-zone numbers slipped a little compared to an exceptional level seen in June, they remain at a very strong rate; there was some weakness in Asia with India, South Korea and the ASEAN region slipping into negative territory. Eurostat’s flash preliminary estimate showed GDP accelerating slightly in the 2nd quarter of 2017 for both the quarter-on-quarter rate and for the 12-month rolling trend. Finally this week, the European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Indicator consolidated the sharp increase that we saw in June; this report also brought news of an increase in capacity utilisation rates in the manufacturing sector for Europe as a whole, while although the UK saw a small fall in its rate, it remains above the long-run average.
That is all for this week we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news, until then, have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA.
