Advanced Fibre Cluster Geelong announces new CEO
The Advanced Fibre Cluster Geelong has announced the appointment of David Buchanan as its new CEO, replacing Jennifer Conley.
XTEK receives third urgent order for armour in 30 days, citing “heightened global security environment”
XTEK has received a third urgent order for ballistic armour from an unnamed international customer within a month, announcing a $2.15 million order on Monday.
Australia plans to be a big green hydrogen exporter to Asian markets – but they don’t need it
The government aims to create a major green hydrogen export industry, particularly to Japan, for which Australia signed an export deal in January. But as our latest research suggests, the likely scale may well be overstated. We show Japan has more than enough solar and wind energy to be self-sufficient in energy, and does not need to import either fossil fuels or Australian green hydrogen. Indeed, Australia as a “renewable energy superpower” is far from a sure thing.
Wine industry body awarded $1.8 million grant to build exports
Australian Grape & Wine has been awarded a $1.82 million grant to help “improve market access, tackle trade barriers and generate growth in key target export markets” for wine makers, the federal agriculture minister has announced.
Today’s federal government cash for industry – $41m for Varley
By Peter Roberts The federal government has continued its all but daily announcements of new defence contracts and grants to manufacturers with the news today that Tomago, NSW engineering group Varley will receive a $41 million contract for deployable military infrastructure. According to a statement from defence minister Peter Dutton: “The contract is part of…
Canberra data centre manufacturer earns $12 million Defence contract
Canberra-based modular data centre maker Datapod has been awarded a $12 million order from the federal government, described as a boost for the nation’s sovereign industrial capability.
Let’s not waste this emergency – secure our critical mineral supply chains
By Peter Roberts If covid-19 has taught us anything it is that Australia needs to be more self sufficient in what we manufacture onshore and depend less on globalised supply chains that are easily interrupted by accident or design. For advanced nations there is a range of rare earths that are essential to high tech…
SkyGuardian scrapped to fund cyber warfare upgrade
The federal government has announced the cancellation of the planned purchase of the SkyGuardian long endurance armed unmanned aerial system (UAS) to allow for a boost to the Australian Defence Force’s cyber capabilities. Defence associate secretary Matt Yannopoulos told Senate estimates that the purchase of the General Atomics MQ-9B SkyGuardian (pictured) under project AIR 7003…
Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed
Frucor Suntory to build $400m factory Beverage manufacturer Frucor Suntory is to build a $400 million facility in Swanbank, Queensland with support from the Queensland government. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said: “The value of attracting this investment to Queensland will have significant benefits for our economic recovery and most importantly, it will create new jobs for…
Calix and Pilbara Minerals to form lithium JV
Industrial process technology company Calix and Pilbara Minerals will establish a joint venture to potentially develop a demonstration plant to produce lithium phosphate salt to supply battery chemicals manufacturing. This follows positive results from their joint scoping study for a lithium salt production facility using Calix technology at Pilbara’s existing spodumene concentrate plant (pictured) at…