Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
Last Friday MTA member company NCMT and the Association added their voices to the nationwide debate on the prospect of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit. We talked to the BBC about the impact on UK manufacturers and how they are planning for March 29th. See the story below to listen to the interview.
The full shortlist has been announced for the 13th edition of the prestigious Exhibition News Awards, which takes place on 22 March at Battersea Evolution. MACH 2018 has been shortlisted for two awards at the event, for Best Trade Show and Best Feature Area for MACH’s collaboration with the AMRC on the Factory 2050 area.
The January edition of the MTA Business Survey is still open at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-jan19 - with thanks to those who have replied, we would encourage all members to take a couple of minutes to let us have your input so we can get as complete a picture of the business situation as possible.
Campaign group Women & Leadership International is administering a national initiative to support the development of female leaders across the UK’s manufacturing sector with grants of up to £1000 to enable participation in a leadership development program. If you or someone in your company could benefit from that you can find out more below.
The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) has once again sponsored and contributed to the UK Manufacturing Review (UKMR), securing a copy for every member of the MTA. Find out more within the brief.
The British Embassy in Colombia, through the Prosperity Fund and the Department for International Trade, are organising the following events in a Manchester and Birmingham: a seminar on Trade & Investment Opportunities in Colombia; a workshop on how to identify and work with commercial partners in Colombia; and a networking reception. Details on how to attend can be found in the story below.
It has been a quiet week for economic news with the big announcements of the 2018 GDP and manufacturing output figures due out next Monday. The ONS released some analysis of productivity by region and industry which we cover briefly, but most of this is structural rather than timely data. We also round up the Purchasing Managers’ Index figures for the Americas which were published after our deadline last Friday; these turned out to be more positive than the Asian and European data with only Canada seeing a fall compared to December.
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.
