Best of the week — the five most popular stories among @AuManufacturing’s readers

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading.

5) NIOA ENTERS US MANUFACTURING WITH FIREARMS BUY

Privately owned Queensland defence contractor NIOA has entered US military manufacturing with the 100 per cent acquisition of the Tennessee rifle design and manufacturing company, Barrett Firearms.

The purchase price was not revealed.

Revealing the company-changing move, NIOA Group CEO Robert Nioa (pictured) said the two family-owned companies came together out of a shared commitment to quality, innovation, loyalty, and mission.

4) WHY REVIEW THE PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION? JUST DITCH THIS INDUSTRIAL DINOSAUR

The federal treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced an overhaul the economic advisory body, the Productivity Commission, by broadening and deepening its work on economic policy and keeping a central focus on boosting productivity. Well good luck with that, writes Peter Roberts.

Labor attempted to reform this bastion of neo-liberal economics once before – by moving staff from Canberra to Melbourne, Labor then hoped to make it more in touch with and responsive to industry rather than being so wedded to neo-liberal economic theory.

3) INCAT SELLS FIRST ELECTRIC PASSENGER AND VEHICLE FERRY

Tasman ferry builder Incat has received its first order for a new electric vehicle ferry design which will be exported to South America.

According to reports, Argentine company Buquebus has ordered what will be Incat’s first-ever aluminium catamaran design –  the 148 metre long catamaran ‘utility Ro-Pax’ design.

Designed by Revolution Design, the vessels will be capable of carrying up to 1,200 passengers and their vehicles at up to 25 knots, driven by two electric drives mounted in pods beneath the hull.

2) WA ALLOCATES LAND FOR $70BN OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS

Companies from Korean steel giant POSCO to renewables leader Fortescue Future Industries are among companies who will benefit from a bold move by the Western Australian government to allocate industrial land for major resource processing industries.

The state government announced Land allocation approvals for multiple industrial companies in Boodarie and Ashburton North to enable $70 billion of industrial developments.

Located 12 kilometres south of the Onslow town site in the Shire of Ashburton, the 8,000 hectare Ashburton North Strategic Industrial Area  land allocations focus on production of ammonia and methanol. The area has been designed for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and domestic gas processing as well as related downstream processing industries.

1) BATTERY GIGAFACTORY SET FOR GEELONG

New-York-based Recharge Industries is to build a lithium-ion battery gigafactory in Geelong, Victoria to generate up to 30 gigawatt hours of storage capacity.

The company announced that it had engaged advisers Accenture as its engineering provider to move forward on building what it envisages as one of the world’s largest gigafactories.

At full capacity, the large-scale lithium-ion battery cell production facility will generate up to 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage capacity per year for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage markets.

Picture: credit Recharge Industries