Best of the week — the five most popular stories among readers, October 6 – October 10, 2025

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

5) Australian hive harvesting innovator wins gold at World Beekeeping Awards

HiveKeepers, a company that is commercialising a new method of harvesting honey for hobbyists and beekeepers after five years of R&D, has won the top prize for innovation at an event sometimes called “the Olympics of beekeeping”.

According to a statement from the company on Wednesday, it won Gold for Innovation with its Micro Honey Harvester at the recent Apimondia World Beekeeping Awards at Copenhagen. HiveKeepers described its prize as “the highest international honour for excellence and advancement in the field”.

“Receiving gold at Apimondia is a career-defining moment, not just for HiveKeepers but for Australian innovation,” said Simon Mildren, Founder and CEO of HiveKeepers.

4) Snowy 2.0 cost blowouts might be OK if the scheme stored power more cheaply than batteries. But it won’t

Two years ago, Snowy Hydro announced a reset for its troubled Snowy 2.0 giant pumped hydro project amid cost blowouts. The supposed final cost was A$12 billion.

Last week, Snowy Hydro acknowledged this figure was no longer viable after a cost reassessment.

I estimate the final cost will be well over $20 billion, excluding new transmission lines – more than ten times higher than the original estimate of $2 billion, writes Bruce Mountain.

3) Instant noodle factory to open at upcoming Pakenham industrial estate

Ballarat Food Manufacturing, a subsidiary of the Yida Group, will move into Brookfield Properties’ Cardinia Logistics Estate at Pakenham, Victoria, with production expected to begin in mid-2026.

According to a statement from real estate developer and operator Brookfield on Tuesday, the food company has secured a five-year lease for its first manufacturing site in Australia. It will cover 14,020 square metres of warehouse space and 640 square metres of office space at the estate, which is under construction with stage one scheduled to be finished “in Q4”.

“This new, state-of-the-art facility will be the cornerstone of our supply chain, enabling us to better serve our customers and support our growth ambitions for years to come,” founder & Director of Ballarat Food Manufacturing, Zhong Chen, said.

2) Don’t panic, says Australian Steel Institute after Europe announces tariff plan

Following the European Commission’s announcement of plans to halve the quota of tariff-free steel imports and apply a 50 per cent tariff beyond that, the Australian Steel Institute (ASI) has urged against panic, saying there were “no surprises” in the news and that the plan has yet to be ratified.

This week the EU proposed a 47 per cent reduction in its steel import quota from 2024 levels to 18.3 million tonnes per annum, after which a duty will apply. It follows the USA’s move to double steel tariffs against Europe.

Mark Cain, head of industry group the ASI, which represents 700 Australian companies, said that only the size of the tariff was news.

1) DroneShield makes $13 million investment in new Adelaide R&D facility, opening in March

Counter-drone business DroneShield has said it will invest $13 million in a new R&D facility at Adelaide, which is expected to initially employ 20 in engineering roles.

The site will be headed up by former Lockheed Martin Australia Hardware Engineering manager Jeff Wojtiuk (pictured), who is also an Adjunct Professor at University of Adelaide and Board Director at the Defence Teaming Centre.

DroneShield – whose recent milestones include joining the ASX200 and hiring its 400th employee globally – said on Tuesday that Adelaide was chosen for reasons including the proximity to global defence and aerospace organisations, the skilled engineering workforce, and established infrastructure supporting electronic warfare and radio frequency systems.

Picture: supplied