Only days after Melbourne’s Fallshaw Group complained in @AuManufacturing news of price gouging by freight forwarders CEO Jo Fallshaw has been given a price lifeline. Fallshaw had been hit with lack of available flights and price hikes of five times for freighting her specialised hospital bed castors (pictured) to the United States to fulfil an…
Oil refiner and retailer Caltex is to shutter its Lytton refinery (pictured) in Queensland in May, bringing forward planned maintenance. While the company plans to complete the work by August, it warned that it would only re-open the refinery, one of only four remaining in Australia, if ‘margin conditions have sufficiently recovered’. The global oil…
Leading aerospace composites manufacturer Quickstep powered ahead in the third quarter of the year as it continued work on long term contracts for mainly defence-related clients. The Sydney company recorded positive cash flow of $100,000 on sales for the quarter up 16 per cent on the previous corresponding period to $19.2 million. Sales for the…
Lithium technology company Lithium Australia has been granted a patent from IP Australia covering its LieNA lithium metal processing technology. The Perth company is developing mining, processing, battery cathode manufacturing and battery recycling operations, and now receives protection for 20 years for its core technology. The company and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation…
Manufacturing has so far continued to operate in the face of the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, with companies using social distancing and sanitation measures to keep their staff safe at work. Companies have also re-engineered their supply chains to replace inputs from distant sources such as China. But forward looking companies are also planning…
Comment by Peter Roberts As we digest the news that the federal government has called up industrialist Andrew Liveris to help map out a future for Australian manufacturing, there remains a view prevalent in the community that Australia doesn’t make things. One former colleague on the weekend railed about how manufacturing had been decimated and…
Australia’s biotechnology industries are set to benefit in the long term with a federal government decision to reverse years of declining support for CSIRO. The government announced on Saturday that it would spend $220 million upgrading the Australian National Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong (pictured) with the increasing threat of human pandemic disease and the…
The federal government has announced the construction of new naval maintenance infrastructure south of Perth to support the Arafura class patrol boats (pictured) now under construction. Lendlease Building Contractors has been awarded a $365 million managing contract for the first tranche of works at HMAS Stirling and the Australian Maritime Complex. Lendlease has committed to…
By Peter Roberts Manufacturers around Australia are gearing up to manufacture essential supplies to fight the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic with state government efforts starting to bear fruit. Five days ago, and three months into the pandemic, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian joined other states in reaching out to manufacturers to step up now that the global…
LBT Innovations extends analysis device uses Medical device manufacturer LBT Innovations has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration to extend the approved use of its APAS laboratory device which uses artificial intelligence to automate microbiology laboratory tests. The Adelaide company is seeking to add detection of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria to APAS’s…
