Hello from the MTA Team; as we come to the end of another week we have our usual round up of news and information for and about the manufacturing technology industry.
Despite being 3 weeks in to the new trading arrangements with the EU (or perhaps because of this) we are still discovering issues with the TCA that was concluded on Christmas Eve. We have news this week of a series of 18 video explainers that the UK government has produced on various aspects of the new arrangements including rules of origin, tariffs and hiring staff from overseas. There is also a new webinar from DIT that will, among other things, look at trading dual-use goods between the UK and the EU.
The DIT has also launched its Internationalisation fund to help SME’s to export and there are details of this below. Another launch from government, this time from BEIS, is a consultation on the prompt payment code that is aiming to shift back to a standard 30-day period for UK businesses.
The economic news this week comes from the CBI Industrial Trends Survey which took a dip in December, especially for new orders, probably from a combination of the new lockdown and the short month, although there were also signs of pre-Brexit stock building which helped to sustain output. The investment intentions data from this survey showed a weaking of the outlook for spending on plant & machinery. We also cover the latest productivity data which is seeing some interesting trends being generated by the nature of the Covid-19 crisis.
Through MTA’s position as an affiliate of Make UK, our members can access their events and presentations and we have news this week of two of these that may be of interest - these cover business travel to the EU under the post-Brexit terms and keeping a safe working environment in manufacturing during the Covid-19 crisis. We also have news of the latest in the NPL’s Manufacturing Measurement Network events.
Our colleagues at the MTC are helping to promote the new round of applications for the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and you can find out more about this below. We have details of the latest work proposal from BSI which covers safety requirements for CNC systems and also information about how small companies can access the Business Growth Hub’s 3rd Made for Manufacturing programme.
Finally, we have news of some opportunities for UK companies; one of these is in the form of a webinar being presented by the Indian State of Karnatka to provide a base for working in the Indian market and the other is a request from a small Italian machine tool manufacturer who is looking for a UK partner.
We hope that you have a good weekend and, until we return next Friday, stay safe.
