Best of the week — the five most popular stories among readers, March 31 – April 4, 2025

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

5) Liquid catalyst breakthrough speeds up chemical manufacturing

A major breakthrough in liquid catalysis is transforming how essential products are made, making the chemical manufacturing process faster, safer and more sustainable than ever before.

Researchers from Monash University, the University of Sydney, and RMIT University have developed a liquid catalyst that could transform chemical production across a range of industries – from pharmaceuticals and sustainable products to advanced materials.

By dissolving palladium in liquid gallium the team, led by Associate Professor Md Arifur Rahim from Monash University’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, created a self-regenerating catalytic system with unprecedented efficiency.

4) HEO’s Holmes space camera to fly on upcoming Australian-Indian mission

HEO – which launched an Australian-made, world-first commercial camera dedicated to non-Earth imaging (NEI) in 2023 – has announced that it will support the Space Machines Company-led Space-MAITRI mission, scheduled for launch in late-2026.

HEO said in a statement on Thursday that it will provide a second generation of its NEI camera, billed the Holmes Mk2, for Space Machines Company’s Australian-built Rapid Response Vehicle, Optimus Viper.

SMC heads the Australian-Indian Space MAITRI mission, which was announced in April 2024 and has been assisted by an $8.5 million grant from the Australian Space Agency.

3) Fitch downgrades steel manufacturer InfraBuild to ‘CC’ amid audit delays

Fitch Ratings downgraded Australian steel manufacturer InfraBuild’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating to ‘CC’ from ‘CCC-‘ citing an elevated probability of default on its USD $550 million notes within the next three months.

The ratings agency pointed to InfraBuild’s failure to publish audited financial statements for FY24, which were initially due in October 2024 but have faced multiple deferrals. The company is Australia’s only vertically integrated manufacturer of long steel products, with electric arc furnace steelmaking capacity of 1.4 million tonnes annually.

Manufacturing operations at InfraBuild face additional headwinds from weak earnings performance, with first-half FY25 EBITDA dropping 43 per cent year-on-year. Fitch forecasts continued pressure on the company’s manufacturing margins, particularly due to potential increases in steel imports as redirected flows from North Asia enter Australia.

2) Global trade tensions highlight urgency for Australia to invest in sovereign advanced materials capability

Without a concerted effort to develop local refining and manufacturing, Australia will remain dependent on international supply chains for the materials we use, leaving us vulnerable to global disruptions.

A national materials science and engineering innovation strategy around ‘advanced materials’ could help provide the framework for Australia to capitalise.

It would focus not just on technological development but also on ensuring that the country has a skilled workforce ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow. By Professor Christopher Hutchinson.

1) Election campaign high on cost of living relief, but cost of industry a wicked problem

If Australia’s domestic manufacturing and tech sector had a dollar for every time political leaders have declared — in and out of election campaigns for decades — that innovative SMEs are the engine of the economy, we might have a small but globally significant 21st century manufacturing sector by now.

If we had a buck for every time Australian defence officials have said since 2016 that Australia faces its most threatening geopolitical environment in 70 years, and that we urgently need an accelerated sovereign capability development push, Australia might have something resembling a small but viable defence force by now.

But here we are only five weeks away from what has been touted as the “most consequential federal election” in decades and the only thing the long-ignored domestic manufacturing and tech sector can say with reasonable certainty is that we finally have a definition of what an Australian company actually is, writes Sandy Plunkett.

Picture: credit Infrabuild