Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
First up we have a preview for MACH 2020, which is getting closer all the time. This week we focus on Additive Manufacturing and speak to some of the companies behind this technology who will be exhibiting at the show.
Sticking with shows, EMO Hannover takes place next month, and we have details on how you can get free tickets to attend. See within the Brief for more details.
At EMO, CELIMO will be hosting an International Meeting and while the economic updates for Europe, India, Japan and the USA will be valuable and well worth attending for, the primary purpose of the meeting is as a networking opportunity. The meeting will be held on Wednesday 18th September on the fairground at Hannover. To find out how to attend please the story below
With the likelihood of a No Deal Brexit in the autumn increasing, the CBI has backed up government efforts to help prepare by publishing practical steps the UK, EU and businesses can take to mitigate the worst effects. The report they published (to which the MTA contributed) makes sobering reading and puts forward 200 recommendations.
Preparations are going to be ramped up over the coming weeks and months and we will be regularly publishing information in the Friday Brief so keep an eye out. The main short-term concern that Government has in relation to the advanced engineering sector is that not enough companies who trade (either import or export) with the EU have an EORI number – which enables HMRC to identify companies involved in transactions and progress them. Companies that trade outside the EU will already have one, but the fear is for companies which only trade with the EU – HMRC estimates that as many as 150,000 of these have not applied. If you don’t have an EORI number, in a No Deal scenario, your goods (both inbound and outbound) will be impounded by HMRC at the port of entry/exit. You can apply here https://www.gov.uk/eori
Keeping across what’s going on in the economy is vital at a time like this. One way to do this is to take part in the MTA Business Survey. July’s is now available, please take the time to fill it out here www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-jul19 - we look forward to hearing from you.
The Supply Chain Research Group (SCRG) at WMG, University of Warwick, is conducting a study to understand the current maturity of Robotics Process Automation adoption across the supply chain. If you would like to contribute to this study see within the Brief for more details.
The China Britain Business Council will be holding an SME Forum in Leeds on 24th September at the College of Music. The event will present an excellent opportunity for SMEs in the region who are looking to develop their business activity with China. Find out more below.
The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data for manufacturing around the world continue to make rather gloomy reading; most of the countries and regions that e track are in negative territory, although there were a few this month that had improved compared to July. The UK reading remains weak and there was another fall in the PMI reading for the Euro-zone with Germany still very weak. You know you are in trouble when, for the manufacturing sector, Germany is almost at the bottom of a pile that is topped by Greece!
In the other data this week, the first stab at GDP data from Eurostat shows a significant deceleration in growth for the Euro-zone and the EU28 in the 2nd quarter. Consistent with this and the PMI data, the latest overview from the European Commission highlights falling industrial confidence, coupled with lower capacity utilisation rates with the UK among a number of major industrial nations to see a reduction in the use of manufacturing capacity. Finally, the latest set of data for the Contract Price Adjustment (CPA) Service that we subscribe to on behalf of members is available, as is the Q1-19 edition of CECIMO’s Economic & Statistics Toolbox.
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news and view, have a great weekend.
