Best of the week — the five most popular stories among readers, March 17 – March 21, 2025

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) Applications open for regional NSW lean manufacturing pilot program The NSW government has launched a pilot program budgeted at $800,000, providing lean manufacturing audits to regional SME (between 20 and 200 full-time employees) companies. The Lean Manufacturing Pilot Program opened on…

$70 million Powering the Regions Fund: Industrial Transformation Stream opens for applications

The federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) opened a second round of the Powering the Regions Fund: Industrial Transformation Stream (ITS) program on Friday, with $70 million allocated to assist industrial businesses to decarbonise. Following Thursday’s announcement of a $39.8 million grant awarded through the fund to the nation’s only silicon producer, Simcoa Operations,…

Mapei releases range of SCM-boosting concrete admixtures, including Australian-developed variant

Construction industry chemicals company Mapei has officially launched Mapecube, a range of concrete admixtures, with an Australian formulation developed at the company’s Brisbane plant. According to a statement from the Milan, Italy-based company on Friday (Australian time), Mapecube is “designed to strengthen and reduce the CO2 footprint of concrete” and allows concrete producers to “use…

Graphene Manufacturing Group raises $6.4 million, looks to list on “a major United States exchange”

Brisbane-based, Canadian-listed Graphene Manufacturing Group has raised $C 5,796,000 (approximately $6.4 million) at a price of $C 0.80 per unit. According to a statement from the company on Friday (Australian time), the net proceeds will be used to expand its production capacity to increase sales, for R&D on its Graphene Aluminium-Ion Battery with the Battery…

Brisbane biotech Vaxxas secures US patent for needle-free vaccine technology

Brisbane-based clinical-stage biotechnology company Vaxxas secured a new patent from the United States patent office covering its proprietary manufacturing technology for needle-free vaccine patches, the company announced on Wednesday. The patent covers Vaxxas’ printhead system that dispenses dried vaccine formulations onto the company’s high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP), which features thousands of microscopic projections on a…

Battery recycling body backs NSW bill, urges nationwide approach

Australia’s battery recycling scheme, B-cycle, has thrown its support behind landmark NSW legislation that would introduce mandatory battery product stewardship in response to growing fire risks from lithium-ion batteries. The Product Lifecycle Responsibility Bill, introduced to Parliament on Tuesday by NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe, aims to ensure all battery producers and importers take responsibility…