Beverage manufacturer Suntory Oceania has begun work adding solar PV panels to its new facility at Ipswich in Queensland which is now nearing completion. The company is building the $400 million facility to bring together the Australian operations of Suntory Global Spirits and Suntory Beverage & Food, uniting alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing in one…
Hearing implant manufacturer Cochlear has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Oticon Medical cochlear implant business from Demant, following the end of a protracted battle with competition authorities. The business, which has 20,000 implant patients, became available following Demant’s decision to discontinue work on hearing implants. Cochlear’s CEO & President Dig Howitt welcomed…
Aluminium chemicals company Alpha HPA has committed to a $500 million second stage development of its battery metals precursor plant at Gladstone, Queensland. The development, which follows the successful development of a Stage 1 plant, will see the construction begin in FY24 utilising the latest in process control systems and automation of a facility capable…
By Peter Roberts If @AuManufacturing’s editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – has taught us anything, it is not the national myth of plucky Australians being an inventive people battling to commercialise their ideas. Towards 3% has taught us that unlike leading nations, Australia doesn’t have a supportive innovation ecosystem…
Yet another Australian manufacturing operation is heading for foreign control with fertiliser and explosives business Incitec Pivot confirming it was negotiating the sale of its fertiliser manufacturing to an Indonesian company. IPL’s CEO & Managing Director Mauro Neves told investors the company had continued to progress the structural separation of its fertiliser and explosives businesses.…
Emeritus Professor Roy Green of UTS Sydney said the budget responded to a critical moment in Australia’s economic history. Green said: The world is shifting from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy to meet net zero targets. “And it is recognising the importance of participating in the industries of the future by moving up…
By Peter Roberts If a plethora of ambitious programmes and many, many billions of dollars are all that it takes to reverse manufacturing’s long term slide, then Jim Chalmers budget 2024 delivered tonight has made a welcome start on setting the $124 billion sector up for a new period of expansion. While headlines were the…
By Peter Roberts The 2024 budget has responded to the issues being raised by @AuManufacturing’s one-month long series of articles around the theme Towards 3% R&D – turbocharging Australia’s innovation efforts. Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a ‘strategic examination of Australian research and development’ as part of the Future Made in Australia package of measures. According…
Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy explains how the government has built new structures to link defence innovation with commercial outcomes, building the defence industrial base in the process. A strong and sovereign innovation, science and technology sector is critical to…
Battery Materials producer Liontown Resources has executed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract with GR Engineering Services (GRES) for the delivery and commissioning of the paste plant to support underground mining operations at the company’s Kathleen Valley lithium mine. The Paste Plant will include two trains capable of producing up to 160m3 of paste…