Friday Brief 12/04/2024 (W15)

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! It’s that time again, MACH is only 3 days away! The NEC halls are beginning to look busier, and stands are beginning to take shape ready for Monday morning! We can’t wait to welcome you to MACH 2024 and everything it has to offer!

For a Sustainable and prosperous UK economy to continue to grow, businesses across the UK need to thrive. The British Business Bank wants to break down particular barriers to finance so that access to finance is a level playing field for all entrepreneurs. The British Business Bank has launched its Regional Investment Funds II in the Midlands and Northern Powerhouse and has launched new Investment Funds in other regions around the country. Check out all the details in the story.

MACH is the UK’s national event for inspiring, innovating and connecting manufacturing. It is the perfect platform to discover cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and solutions, providing you with an opportunity to experience the latest advancements in the industry. Register to visit below and come along to say hi to The MTA on stand 20-545 during your walk around the show.

The main economic news this week was the UK data for manufacturing output and GDP for February; this turns out to have been a good month for the manufacturing sector, although the month-on-month comparisons can be quite volatile. The economy as a whole also grew, despite the impact of the wet weather on the construction sector and although it was at a slower pace than in January, we do seem to be on track for declaring that the UK’s recession is over after just two quarters.

In a separate article, we also take a look at the data on investment and profitability in the Euro-zone for the final quarter of 2023. We are also pleased to announce the publication of the 2023 edition (i.e. with data covering that year) of the CECIMO Global Machine Tool Report. This has figures for 66 countries, split between metal cutting and metal forming machines and is an invaluable source of outline data for the industry – plus our members have the benefit of being able to download the document free of charge.

Finally, we have three surveys running at the moment. Although we will release (to respondents) a flash overview of the MTA Business Survey for February later today, the full report won’t be out until after MACH so there is still time to let us have your input via the secure online form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-feb24 which is still open. Similarly, the EIA Quarterly Survey for the 1^st period of 2024 is also still open – the form for that is at https://www.mta.org.uk/eia-quarterly-survey-1st-quarter-2024. The other open project is the biannual European AM Trends Survey (for AM-UK members) – this will be closing towards the end of this month and the secure online form for this is at https://www.mta.org.uk/additive-manufacturing-trends-survey-spring-2024.

And that’s a wrap on today’s Newsletter! Due to MACH 2024 opening on Monday, we won’t have a Friday Brief for you next week. We hope you have a great week and for those of you attending the show, we look forward to seeing you there!

CECIMO GLOBAL MACHINE TOOL REPORT

The 2023 edition of the CECIMO Global Machine Tool Report has just been released and is available to members free of charge (there is a charge for non-members). You can access this report at https://www.mta.org.uk/members-area/market-intelligence/global-mt-report/ but you will need to be logged into the site with your members password. This is the first set of […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – EUROPE

European Investment & Profitability, 4th Quarter 2023: Eurostat has published data on the investment rate and profitability although, bizarrely, this is mixed up in a report which is headlined to be about the household saving rate. Note, also, that this data is only for the Euro-zone and does not include any country analysis. The investment […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – UK

UK Manufacturing Output, February 2024: Data published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the manufacturing sector had a good month in February with output growing by +1.2% compared to January; this took the level to its highest since June 2023 and to 95.7% of its pre-pandemic peak – for the monthly […]

MACH 2024 is only 3 days away!

MACH is the UK’s national event for inspiring, innovating and connecting manufacturing. It is the perfect platform to discover cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and solutions, providing you with an opportunity to experience the latest advancements in the industry. The five-day event will feature the largest display of working machinery in a single venue, allowing you to make informed […]

BRITISH BUSINESS BANK LAUNCHES REGIONAL INVESTMENT FUNDS

For a Sustainable and prosperous UK economy to continue to grow, businesses across the UK need to thrive. The British Business Bank wants to break down particular barriers to finance so that access to finance is a level playing field for all entrepreneurs – wherever they are, whatever their gender, whatever their ethnicity. The purpose […]

Friday Brief