Wellnex Life on track to meet earnings guidance
Healthcare manufacturer Wellnex Life is on track to meet its full year revenue guidance of $29 million for FY23, a rise of 55 percent on the previous corresponding period, according to a company update. The company said it had achieved higher margins from its wholly-owned brands as well as through licensing IP. The company has launched or acquired five new brands over the past 18 months and secured IP licensing – contract manufacturing – agreements with ‘large domestic and international pharmaceutical companies’. Wellnex is budgeting for FY24 revenue to be $47 million, a further increase of 63 percent, with its own brands likely to account for 24 percent of revenue. CEO George Karafotias said: “Wellnex over the past 18 months has been laying the foundations to be a significant player in the healthcare market and that work is starting to pay off. We will continue to see new products coming to market throughout 2023.”
Austal celebrates arrival of USS Oakland in Darwin
Perth shipbuilder Austal has celebrated the arrival of the US Navy’s Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship USS Oakland (LCS 24) in the port of Darwin (pictured). Designed at Henderson in Perth and built by Austal for the US Navy at the company’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama the 127-metre, high-speed, multi-mission ship is capable of operating independently or as part of a battle group as a fast, lethal platform to conduct littoral and open ocean operations, according to Austal. USS Oakland has the operational flexibility to execute focused missions such as surface warfare, mine warfare and anti-submarine warfare.
Marathon Targets opens US production facility
Marathon targets has announced the formal opening of its North American HQ and Autonomous Robotic Training System production facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The opening was attended by Congressman Dale Strong, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and community leaders and partners. Marathon designs, manufactures, and operates autonomous robotic target systems to provide realistic live fire training scenarios. The company’s AI-driven, armoured, wheeled autonomous robotic humanoids look, move, and even behave like people. In 2021 Marathon won a Defence Innovation Hub contract of $1.6 million, to continue to develop an unmanned, realistic and self-propelled vehicle target to support Australian Defence Force training.
Amcor begins offering certified-circular plastics for ANZ customers
NYSE- and ASX-listed Amcor has announced that it has placed a first commercial order of certified-circular polymers from Exxonmobil for use in Australia and New Zealand. The polymers use ExxonMobil’s Exxtend recycling technology and would make Amcor “the first flexible packaging company to offer certified-circular plastics in this market”, it said, supporting “partial displacement of fossil-based feedstock”. Richard Smith, Amcor’s Sustainability Director for Asia Pacific, said this order supports customers achieving circularity in their flexible packaging and meeting Australia’s National 2025 Packaging Targets. “We are excited to provide our customers in Australia and New Zealand access to this important resource, and to contribute to developing more sustainable solutions that help our customers and their brands continue to meet consumer needs,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
EPOC Enviro plans to open US site
PFAS remediation technology company EPOC Enviro announced this week that it plans to open a major manufacturing base in North Carolina, USA. According to EPOC, a production schedule is already filled until 2024 at the new facility in Statesville, NC, which will initially employ up to 225 staff and build 150 of the company’s SAFF (Surface Active Foam Fractionation) units per year, exclusively for the US market. SAFF uses air bubbles are used to “foam out” 99+ per cent of target PFAS contaminants, permanently stripping them from the ecosystem. “Our move to Statesville feels well timed,” said EPOC Enviro President, Pete Murphy. “With new US EPA guidelines recently announced around PFAS, and the SAFF systems now recognised and proven as a practical and efficient full-scale solution, there has never been a better ‘right time right place’ moment to expand our manufacturing into the USA.” SAFF is already manufactured at Emu Plains, Australia, “with a significant knowledge transfer between the two nations now in action as recruitment and training ramps up at Statesville.”
Collie waste-to-fuel facility completed
Renergi has completed construction of the $10.4 million Collie Resource Recovery Centre, co-located with the Shire of Collie’s landfill site, with support from the Western Australian and federal governments. The site will will see biochar, bio-oil and wood vinegar production from municipal solid wastes and biomass investigated, with the potential to reduce landfills and convert plastic wastes into valuable industrial and energy inputs, according to the WA government. Federal energy minister Chris Bowen and WA regional development minister Don Punch joined representatives from Renergi on Friday to officially mark the completion of the centre. The site is described as using a patented design and technology developed by Renergi, the first of its kind, and positioning Collie as a pioneer in the negative-emission bio-based circular economy. Renergi and its technology were incubated at Curtin University by an engineering team led by Professor Chun-Zhu Li.
Two Australian innovations to be showcased at Hannover Messe 2023
The leaders of two pioneering Australian companies will be showcasing their achievements at the world’s biggest industrial fair, Hannover Messe 2023, this month. According to a statement this week from Siemens Australia — a technology provider to the two companies — Walter Meyler, founder and CEO of Automation Innovation, and Shane Carter, Managing Director of Centric Process Automation, will be presenting on their respective world first technologies at the event. Automation Innovation has developed an AI-based solution for the glass mould cleaning process – making it faster, more accurate and eliminating the use of harsh chemical cleaners or ceramic bead blasting. Centric PA will discuss its fully-automated fire-retardant loading system for aircrafts, which saves critical response time for fire-fighting aircraft and increases safety and efficiency for fire fighters. Hannover Messe runs from 17th – 22nd April. Both sessions can be livestreamed, and more information on the overall program and the individual sessions can be found here.
Picture: Austal/USS Oakland in Darwin
