Manufacturing News

Chief Scientist: we need to transform our world into a sustainable ‘electric planet’

I want you to imagine a highway exclusively devoted to delivering the world’s energy.

Sales up, profits down for Orora

Packaging group Orora has experienced a topsy turvy first half of the year with sales and profits moving in opposite directions. Net profits after tax were down 13.3 per cent to $76.6 million on sales that rose 13.3 per cent to $1.8 billion. The manufacturer of glass, cans and fibre packaging experienced subdued economic conditions…

Geelong precision farming startup begins trials

Deakin University-based IoT company Strut has begun a three-month trial of its ground-based sensor products, which update farmers on soil moisture and temperature, humidity and air temperature.   The company was founded by four engineers to make a simple precision agriculture offering, and went through Deakin’s three-month Spark accelerator program last year. Strut is based…

Small world: atom-scale materials are the next tech frontier

By Baohua Jia, Professor, Swinburne University of Technology Every age in the history of human civilisation has a signature material, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We might even call today’s information-driven society the Silicon Age. Since the 1960s, silicon nanostructures, the building-blocks of microchips, have supercharged the development of electronics, communications,…

CSL continues stellar performance

Biotechnology and vaccines group CSL has confirmed itself as Australia’s global manufacturing powerhouse with net profit after tax for the first half of the year of $1.86 (US$1.25) billion, up eleven per cent on the previous corresponding period. The half saw dramatic growth in its blood-based products, with R&D investment over more than a decade…

CALIX accelerates US growth with in-country acquisition

Chemical technology company Calix (ASX: CXL) has accelerated its penetration of the US market with the completion of the purchase of wastewater treatment business Inland Environmental Resources (IER). The company supplies magnesium hydroxide liquid (MHL) for use in the food processing, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment markets in the Pacific Northwest and Mid-West markets. The…

Cochlear cuts profit outlook on Coronavirus fears

Hearing implant company Cochlear has become the latest to be hit by the global Coronavirus scare, cutting its profit outlook for the year. From a profit outlook of between $290 and $300 million for the year, the company now expect profit to be as little as $270 million. This would represent a rare stumble by…