News from the 25th February- 4th March 2022

Morrisons becomes first UK supermarket to scrap plastic cartons

Morrisons will become the first supermarket in the UK to replace its plastic cartons with a carbon neutral alternative. Nine types of Morrisons fresh milk will be sold in Tetra Pak cartons from mid-February, which will save an initial 100 tonnes of plastic a year. Morrisons has also moved the majority of its own label fresh juice from plastic bottles to cartons to remove another 678 tonnes of plastic per annum. Fresh milk is currently one of the single biggest users of plastic packaging within UK supermarkets, accounting for approximately 10 per cent of all plastic used.

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/morrisons-becomes-first-uk-supermarket-6700830

Engineering giant Westley Group secures eight-figure funding package from HSBC UK

A UK engineering firm has secured an eight-figure funding package from HSBC UK. Westley Group, which is one of Europe's largest privately-owned foundry and engineering groups, will use the cash to further invest in new CNC machinery to enable it to produce more products for its worldwide customer base. The funding will also allow the company to grow into existing and emerging markets and create several new, skilled jobs in the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

https://www.business-live.co.uk/manufacturing/engineering-giant-westley-group-secures-23237297

Manufacturing grows as supply chain disruption eases

The UK’s manufacturing sector has grown at its fastest pace in seven months as demand rose and supply chain delays and raw material shortages eased, according to data. Manufacturing output and new orders from UK-based customers rose across all sub-sectors and benefitted from customers being more positive following the winding down of Covid-19 restrictions. By comparison, new export business fell for the fifth time in six months due to ongoing pandemic restrictions and Brexit-related issues, the survey found. Prices remain high but there were signs that the speed of the increases is starting to ease.

https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/19959743.manufacturing-grows-supply-chain-disruption-eases/

Rockwell Automation has launched a new compact design PowerFlex 6000T medium-voltage drive. The drive has a 7.58ft to 9.87ft wide footprint. The compact PowerFlex 6000T is designed for new and retrofit industrial applications, particularly those with space constraints.

PowerFlex 6000T drives manage motor control for heavy, industrial applications in oil and gas refining to mining, mineral and metal processing, water & wastewater, and power generation.

Last year, cybersecurity researchers discovered vulnerabilities in some of Schneider Electric’s product including Modicon M580 and M340 PLCs. These vulnerabilities enable attackers to bypass security tools installed on these PLCs and exploit the undocumented Modbus commands to gain complete control of the plc.

Using these commands attackers can take over the plc, gain native code execution on the device and make changes to the operation of the plc, while hiding the changes from the engineering workstation that manages it.

Since the discovery, Schneider had been working on a patch which is expected to be released Q4 of 2021. In the meantime, SE had released a security advisory on 13 July 2021 for users of M580 and M340 to help protect their system from possible attack.

Find the Schneider Electric security advisory here.