What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) Quantum computing breakthrough by CSIRO unlocks new horizons CSIRO’s quantum researchers have catapulted Australia into the future of big data analysis. On January 29, 2025, they unveiled a quantum machine learning feat that could soon have us zipping through traffic,…
Ai Group on inflation: “the worst is behind us, but”… Employer representative the Australian Industry Group has welcomed new inflation figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, but cautioned that there is “a lot of work to do” in returning the nation to “a stable economic footing”. The ABS tracked inflation at…
According to the latest Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) industry expectations survey, industry leaders across Australia are notably pessimistic about the country’s economic prospects for 2025, with many scaling back on long-term investments in favour of short-term productivity measures. Innes Willox (pictured), Chief Executive of the Ai Group, emphasised that the survey’s results should serve…
Although the consumer price index (CPI) slowed to 2.8 per cent this week, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that inflation is also “re-accelerating in some parts of the industrial ecosystem”, employer representative the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) has said. In a statement on Friday, Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox called slowing consumer…
With almost $4 trillion in Australian superannuation assets, that pool of capital is sometimes cited as an untapped resource for worthwhile but underfunded causes, such as developing high-tech local businesses. Encouraging just a small portion of this to find its way into tech startups is a popular idea — one sometimes advocated by contributors to…
BHP sets new copper smelting records BHP has set new records for smelted copper production at its South Australian copper mines centred on the Olympic Dam mine, concentrator and smelter. The company achieved record copper mined and concentrate smelted at Olympic Dam in FY24 production was up by 39 per cent to 322kt in the…
A new survey of 251 individual businesses by the Ai Group’s Centre for Education and Training (CET) has highlighted the impact of the current skills shortage, with 77 per cent of respondents reporting an increased need for technicians and trades workers, and 79 per cent having trouble finding these. The shortage of technicians and trades…
A welcome focus on growing Australian capability Industry-research collaboration advocate Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) has praised the focus on growing Australia’s science and technological performance, continued support for Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) funding, and plans to transform Australian R&D. Budget 2024 “has put education, research, manufacturing and industrial transformation at its core” said CRA CEO…
The manufacturing sector has continued its trend towards contraction in July, with the Ai Group Australian Industry Index losing 2.8 points to -14.7 points – the broad gauge of industry conditions has been negative for the past fifteen months. Meanwhile the Australian PMI indicator which focuses more closely on manufacturers fell to -25.6, indicating contractionary…
The industrial economy continues to contract in response to higher interest rates according to the latest data released by employer group the AiGroup. The group’s Australian Industry Index, which is broader than its companion Performance of Manufacturing Index, fell in June 2023, losing 1.1 points to minus 11.9 points (seasonally adjusted). The index has indicated…