Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
Firstly, we would like to remind members that the MTA AGM will take place on 3rd December at Cutlers' Hall in Sheffield. As well as the usual AGM Business, the event will have the theme of business improvement and feature talks from Margaret Wood, MBE, Chairman, ICW (UK), Christopher Jewitt, Chairman, Footprint Sheffield and Dr. Bryan Allcock, FIMMM, Group CEO, TRL9 Limited. The AGM will be followed by a 3 course lunch, for details on how to secure your place at this event please follow the link https://www.mta.org.uk/event/mta-agm-2019.
We will be closing the October edition of the MTA Business Survey early next week but there is still time to get your return back to us. The online form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-oct19 is still available, so if you have not done so already, please take a couple of minutes to fill in the survey.
Smart IoT is taking place 11th-12th March 2020 at ExCeL London and the MTA have entered into a partnership with the show meaning Members get a discount at the show. Find out more in the Brief.
A pledge by Boris Johnson to boost R&D spending has highlighted uncertainty over our involvement in future EU-led R&D, while civil servants intensify preparations for trade talks in anticipation of leaving the EU early in 2020. Details below.
The BSI Standards Conference & Awards is an opportunity to enable cross-sector knowledge sharing and networking it takes place at Great Cumberland Place (@ Hard Rock Hotel) on 21st November. To find out how to attend see below.
Staying with BSi the MTA technical team recently attended the ISO TC39 SC2 meeting for the development of standards for the test conditions for metal cutting machine tools. The meeting was held in the UK for the first time since 2013 at the BSI headquarters in Chiswick, London.
A new list of harmonised standards under the Machinery Directive was published on 19 March 2019. The list withdrew the references of three standards on mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic presses (EN 692, EN 693 and EN 13736). The withdrawal of references was done without foreseeing any transition period. This meant that products manufactured using these standards could not benefit from the presumption of conformity with the requirements of the Machinery Directive with an immediate effect as from 19 March 2019. More details are available within the Brief.
The UK manufacturing sector managed to avoid a recession with output unchanged on the weak level that it registered in the 2nd quarter. There is some good news with the capital goods sub-sector showing some growth, although a lot of this was the recovery in the Automotive sector which was artificially low in the 2nd quarter because of the moving of maintenance shut-downs to April in anticipation of the original Brexit date. The Aerospace industry data continues to be a puzzle in showing a slow by consistent fall in output while the Machinery industry saw output fall again and is now at its lowest point since the end of 2016.
In other economic news this week, the first estimate of the UK economy in the 3rd quarter shows a reasonable quarter-on-quarter growth rate of +0.3%, but as this was slower than last year, the economy was only +1.0% larger than at the end of the 3rd quarter in 2018 – its slowest growth rate since the 1st period of 2010. Industrial production in Europe was flat in September and the pace of decline over the past 12 months has eased, but is still negative. Within this total, the capital goods sub-sector is doing a little better with some growth in September.
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news and views, until then, have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA.
