Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
A new edition of the bi-annual MTA Economic Report has been published and is available for members to download at https://www.mta.org.uk/policy/economic-briefing. This document summarises the latest trends in the economy, the manufacturing sector and its sub-sectors. There is also a quick look at the headlines from our Business Survey (the latest version of which is currently open for responses!) and, in this edition, an update of the latest official data on production, exports and imports for elements of the manufacturing technology sector - these update the tables in our Basic Facts booklet.
The MTA is sponsoring, and exhibiting at, an upcoming event staged at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery by the Design & Technology Association - Training the next generation of designers and engineers. It has been timed to coincide with The Conservative Party Conference which runs next door at Birmingham ICC complex from 30th September to 3rd October.
Businesses from the performance and aftersales sector of the automotive industry are invited to join a Northern Powerhouse trade mission, organised by the Department for International Trade (DIT).
The mission will be around one of the leading automotive speciality products trade events - The Speciality Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show 2018 in Las Vegas. For more details please see the story below.
This year’s PPMA Show at the NEC, Birmingham (25-27 September 2018,) will be the UK’s largest ever event in the processing and packaging sector calendar. For details on how to attend see within the Brief.
Star GB are hosting an open house to demonstrate their latest innovations at their Derby headquarters between 2nd – 4th October 2018, for full details on the event see the story below.
The IET's annual photography competition for 2018 is open for entries. It bids to challenge public misconceptions of engineering and technology and dispel its traditional image of hard hats and dirty overalls. Supported by Amateur Photographer magazine, the IET Engineering & Technology Photographer of the Year 2018 is open to any photograph of an engineering-related subject that captures the dynamic, creative and progressive face of engineering and engineers today.
The Purchasing Managers Index data this week showed a continuation in the deceleration in growth in the UK manufacturing sector – a somewhat complex way of putting it, but deliberately emphasizing that although the headlines tended to use words such as “slow-down”, what the data showed is that manufacturing in the UK continues to expand, but at a slower rate than at any point in the past 2 years. Perhaps of most concern was the actual fall in export orders which were mainly attributed to slower global demand. Globally, the manufacturing PMI trends were a mixture of up’s and down’s, but only Turkey, Russia and South Korea were below the crucial 50 level.
The latest set of indices for the Contract Price Adjustment Service, to which we subscribe on behalf of members, are now available see the article below for more details.
That’s 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.
