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Yatala Enterprise Area reflects Gold Coast industrial growth

Large infrastructure projects across Australia’s east coast have created an explosion in companies expanding or moving their operations to South East Queensland, creating a development frenzy of its own. On Queensland’s Gold Coast, in particular, the 3,300-hectare Yatala Enterprise Area north to the north of the city, the number of companies boosting their presence has risen rapidly, with a raft of new headquarters, manufacturing plants, warehouses and office spaces rising in the industrial park. With a burgeoning pipeline of major infrastructure works and the successful 2032 South East Queensland Olympic bid driving further development, businesses said they were moving to capture a slice of the fast-tracked action along the growth corridor. Compaction equipment sale and hire company, Conplant, said the sustained growth opportunities had motivated the company to construct a new, purpose-built facility at Yatala. Conplant national sales manager Guy Tome said the new facility aimed to meet the company’s growth and customer demand. “We are a national company with our head office in Sydney, but the Gold Coast branch has grown to the largest in the group,” Tome said. “Our biggest branch is the one located at Yatala. We are flat out with a lot more to come.” Tome said the company that hires and sells earthmoving equipment, specialising in compaction equipment used in building roads and rail infrastructure and road maintenance, was projecting sustained growth supplying projects including the Coomera Connector, a new north-south road corridor between Loganholme and Nerang, and the new Inland Rail connecting Melbourne and Brisbane. M1 upgrades underway across Queensland’s southeast corner, Gold Coast Light Rail and other works in northern NSW also justified the new facility that meant the company could supply more equipment and projects, he said. “There’s been a lot in the government planning that’s been fast tracked. Funding is coming […]

A global energy crisis? What happened?

Far from emerging from the Covid shock awash with fuel, as might be expected after an economic slowdown, the world is entering a new energy crisis the like of which hasn’t been seen since the 1970s. European and Asian gas prices are at an all-time high, the oil price is at a three-year high, and the price of coal is soaring on the back of energy shortages across China, India and Germany. The surge in demand is being driven mostly by recovering economies and anticipated extreme weather across Europe and north-east Asia. China is stockpiling domestic coal and gas reserves, and Russia is reluctant to supply gas to Western Europe. Closer to home, Australia’s gas prices are soaring, but might soon plummet. Petrol pandemonium In Britain, a shortage of the truck drivers who move fuel has led to panic-buying amid fears of a shortage. After Brexit, many European truck drivers went back to their home countries and never returned. Compounding Britain’s problem was its so-called “windless summer” in which renewable power production was much lower than normal. This put a significant strain on electricity generation as around 40% of its power is produced by wind. Britain has transitioned away from coal as an electricity source and with low emergency supplies will find it difficult to suddenly switch back to coal. Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains committed to wind generation and says he wants the UK to become the “Saudi Arabia of wind power” with offshore wind farms generating enough electricity to power every UK home within a decade. Oil on a roll Oil prices have soared in response to the windless summer and British and German difficulties in getting access to Russian gas. Those increases will soon hit Australia which imports 80% of its petrol, diesel and jet fuel. OPEC+ […]

D-Link launches world’s first Wi-Fi 6 USB 3.0 Adapter and new Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router

It’s fair to say that D-Link is one of the leading forces ushering in a new digital home transformation with its slew of Wi-Fi 6 devices including today’s launch of the DWA-X1850, the world’s first Wi-Fi 6 USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB 3.0) Adapter and a new Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router – the EXO AX AX3200 DIR-X3260. DWA-X1850 world’s first Wi-Fi 6 USB 3.0 Adapter The new DWA-X1850 AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 USB 3.0 Adapter along with the DIR-X3260 AX3200 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router are engineered to power the increasing number of high-bandwidth devices and support high-intensity data traffic for remote workers, students and families. D-Link A/NZ MD Graeme Reardon said, “We live in a world where more is now the norm for home and business networks. More devices, more bandwidth, more speed and more range. These new Wi-Fi 6 devices enable streamlined and seamless mesh connectivity with efficient AX performance that, put simply, give you more.” The DWA-X1850 is a slim and compact wireless Adapter that plugs into any USB port and provides instant connectivity to your laptop or PC. Delivering a simple, affordable upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 performance for existing desktop and notebook computers, the DWA-X1850 is the world’s first Wi-Fi 6 USB 3.0 Adapter in the market. Featuring the latest 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 technology, it delivers smooth, reliable combined speeds up to AX1800 (574Mbps + 1200Mbps), ideal for large file transfers, online learning lessons and gaming. The Adapter also features 128-bit WPA3 encryption giving customers added peace of mind over network and device protection. This clever Adapter has others smarts too with its Multi-User or MU-MIMO technology for better efficiency of upstream and downstream transmission and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology (where small data packets destined for multiple devices are transmitted together and never have to […]

CSIRO report on future of critical metals demand in the energy transition

A new report by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, has uncovered powerful and counter-intuitive insights into the future supply and demand of critical metals needed to support the transition to a low emissions future. Trajectories for metals used in electric vehicles (EVs) may be more complicated than what is currently accepted, according to one scenario modelled using the Physical Stocks and Flows Framework (PSFF) tool. Released today, the report ‘Known Unknowns: the devil in the details of energy metal demand’ uses the bespoke tool to look at three EV battery metals (cobalt, lithium and nickel) under three different EV uptake scenarios. CSIRO’s Critical Energy Metals Mission-in-development lead, Dr Jerad Ford, said the PSFF tool uses factors not currently accounted for in traditional forecasts to test the demand and supply assumptions. “We know that demand for many metals will increase substantially as the world transitions to a low carbon economy,” Dr Ford said. “But unsophisticated models based on current supply levels and basic recycling rates lead to many mischaracterisations of the real opportunities in both metal mining and recycling. “They ignore the dynamics of materials flows on a global scale and the expected changes in underlying technologies.” For instance, it is commonly assumed that demand for newly-mined metals like cobalt and nickel will continue to increase for the foreseeable future, as they are essential for high performance lithium-ion batteries used in EVs. But by accounting for additional factors such as changes in battery chemistry, quicker EV uptake, and higher levels of recycling, the PSFF tool suggests that, even within the same scenario, new cobalt demand may have an extremely short demand window before an extended glut, while nickel peaks early then falls back sharply, and lithium remains stronger for longer before also trailing off in the out years. “This challenges conventional […]

Calling all Manufacturing Mates

Suicide affects us all. The suicide of a friend, family member or workmate can be devastating across the whole community and particularly at work. Over 3,000 Australians die from suicide each year; of these, 75 per cent of them are men. It’s a leading cause of death for people in the 25-39 age group. The pandemic has brought mental health issues into the forefront. Despite the devastating number of workers infected with Covid-19 in workplaces, Safe Work Australia have reported that nearly one in every five Covid related workers’ compensation claims were generated on mental health grounds. In manufacturing, with many predominantly male or multicultural workers, there have been barriers to discussing mental health as openly as possible. Mates in Manufacturing has been set up to remedy the challenges of suicide ideation and mental health more generally. Bringing together employers and unions and drawing on the expertise of the Mates organisation, Mates in Manufacturing is now ready to deliver its critical workplace training, building this peer-based program within our workplaces and developing the knowledge within our industry to enable us to confront this. Funding has been secured from both the NSW and Federal Governments for research by Western Sydney, Deakin and Melbourne Universities, to ensure that the programs are fit for purpose. Undertaken as a partnership between employers and unions in the sector, Mates in Manufacturing will start its rollout over November this year and will officially launch on December 10. Members of the group overseeing the project, the steering committee come from manufacturing industry leaders like Downer Group, OPAL, UGL, Stramit and Thales and are joined by the Australian Industry Group, with workers represented by the AMWU, AWU and UWU. We recognise that suicide prevention and improving mental health support transcends traditional workplace issues and that by working together […]

Amiga Engineering to manufacture world’s first 3D printed scramjet engine

Hypersonix has placed an order with Amiga Engineering for the Additive Engineering build of the SPARTAN scramjet. SPARTAN is Hypersonix’ fifth generation scramjet. It is a fixed geometry self-igniting hydrogen powered scramjet capable of accelerating from Mach 5 to Mach 12. SPARTAN’s fixed geometry means it has no moving parts, so the design lends itself to Additive Manufacturing (3D printing). This reduces both the cost and time to produce the scramjet, whilst potentially adding to reliability and performance. Additive manufacturing allows the creation of parts that have a complex design. Perfect for light-weighting, which is essential for the Space industry. SPARTAN uses green hydrogen for fuel, so creates no CO2 emissions. The hydrogen fuel also allows Hypersonix to utilise regenerative cooling on the combustor, in turn allowing the use of readily available high temperature alloys in place of more expensive and complex high temperature composites. David Waterhouse, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Hypersonix said: “The use of Additive Engineering to manufacture a scramjet engine will fundamentally disrupt the cost structure of scramjets and an important step in providing more affordable access to hypersonic flight. We are very proud of Australia’s world leading heritage in hypersonics and the ability of Australian companies to work together to demonstrate of Sovereign capability in this New Space technology.” Additive Manufacturing/ 3-D Printing techniques is one of the key elements mentioned in the Australian Modern Manufacturing Strategy which among others includes priorities such as Space, Defence and Clean Energy. The manufacture of the SPARTAN scramjet is being done under the Federal Government ACA Grant that Hypersonix was awarded in August 2020. Under this grant, Hypersonix is building a flight ready scramjet engine and fuel system. Hypersonix has been able to leverage the growing global hydrogen economy to repurpose off-the-shelf high-pressure composite hydrogen tanks. Hypersonix completed shock tunnel […]

Overseas and Australian executives to accelerate pathways to net zero emissions

The Impact X Summit Sydney to be held on November 2-3, brings together an ambitious line-up of Australian and international leaders from government, NGOs, Indigenous organisations, and industry sectors, to discuss technology, investment, and collaborative pathways to net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner. As the world grapples with the need for urgent and genuine action to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and a 50% reduction by 2030, Australians have consistently stated that they believe the Australian Government should be doing more to address climate change, with one of the most recent polls being conducted by the Australian Conservation Foundation showing that 67% of voters overall shared this view which was held in all 151 national seats. “Under the Paris Agreement, Australia committed to reduce emissions by 26%-28% below 2005 levels by 2030, a level which is well below that of other OECD nations. “While a more ambitious target is expected soon, Australian business and industry will then need an unprecedented level of innovation, transformation and investment to deliver on our commitments. Technology will be key to this,” said Tony Gourlay, CEO of Blue Impacts, the organisation behind the summit. Matt Kean, NSW Treasurer & Minister for Energy & Environment, who has been leading the charge for net zero emissions with a series of bold policy commitments, will also be speaking at the summit. The summit will ensure that a voice is given to Indigenous Australians, who have largely been left out of the conversation on climate change. The Gaimaragal Group Founder and Director Susan Moylan-Coombs, who will be speaking at the summit said, “All Indigenous peoples globally are the caretakers of the planet. “We only took what we needed, not what we greeded. The perseverance of all Indigenous people in the face of global extractive economic practices and […]

Bullish sentiment dominates logistics

Business restrictions and border closures haven’t dampened the enthusiasm of Australian transport and warehouse operations with the latest CartonCloud Logistics Index (CCLI) showing high industry optimism and strong growth expectations. The second edition of the CartonCloud Logistics Index took the pulse of warehouse and transport businesses in the second quarter of 2021 with 52 survey respondents providing feedback on business operating conditions, workforce and hiring outlook, growth, opportunities and challenges. CartonCloud founder Vincent Fletcher said the latest CCLI provided deep insight into sentiment into the industry and the opportunities and challenges facing businesses. “The logistics industry continues to go from strength to strength and this quarter demonstrated high optimism for the current economic climate,” Mr Fletcher said. “Australia is relying on the local logistics industry now more than ever and that means more business, stable jobs and more growth opportunities. “Businesses are forecasting growth for the rest of 2021, although there’s slightly lower optimism for hiring compared to the first quarter. “The reduction in hiring expectations could be a consequence of COVID-19 restrictions and economic impacts, but it may also mean businesses have fulfilled the hiring intentions they had in the previous quarter. “Overall, the economic shifts, government stimulus and changes to business practices in response to the pandemic have had a neutral or slightly positive net impact on the logistics industry. “This has offset many of the negative effects from business restrictions and border closures. “The CCLI also put a spotlight on environmentally friendly practices in the industry and the Q2 results show a clear opportunity for improvement. “Switching to paperless technology is the most likely investment businesses are targeting to improve environmental practices. “The results of the index point towards a robust industry capitalising on economic conditions with strong confidence for the future.” STATISTIC SNAPSHOT Economic climate General […]

Ingersoll Rand launches powerful cordless impact wrench – IQV Series

Ingersoll Rand Inc. has introduced the world’s most powerful cordless 1″ impact wrenches: the W9691 & W9491. Alongside these two class leading cordless impact tools, the new dual bay charger provides quick simultaneous charging of (2) IQV20 20V Lithium-Ion batteries. Both tools are offered in standalone or kit options: W9691 6″ Extended Anvil 1″ Square Drive Cordless Impact Wrench W9691-K4E Kit: 6″ Extended Anvil Tool, Four 20V batteries, and Dual Bay Charger W9491 Standard Anvil 1″ Square Drive Cordless Impact Wrench W9491-K4E Kit: Standard Anvil Tool, Four 20V batteries, and Dual Bay Charger Key features and benefitsIdeal for mission critical jobs and applications that require the power of a pneumatic tool but with the utmost freedom and mobility; utilising the same IQV20 battery platform as our other 20V tools. Pure PowerRemoving rusted, painted bolts are no match for the 4000 Nm of nut busting torque that our 6″ extended anvil 1″ cordless impact tool promises to deliver! Each unit is also capable of providing best-in-class 3000 Nm of forward fastening torque. Ultimate Flexibility3 speed and torque settings give users the flexibility to take better control of their tightening needs without worrying about stripping or overtightening. Maximum Durability Every component, mechanism and function of the 1″ tool platform has been put through the most rigorous testing to ensure it always performs in the face of the toughest applications. Backed by an IP56 rating, these cordless tools are designed and built to last! Streamlined Service Several key design features, like the simple 4 bolt front housing design allowing for simple and efficient servicing. Ingersoll Rand power tools are made with superior components and backed by our worldwide parts and service organisation, providing the support you need to keep your business running. Ideal for a range of applications, from vehicle service to industrial MRO job […]

Australia’s clean hydrogen revolution is a path to prosperity

–John Mathews, Professor Emeritus, Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University. Days out from the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, the Morrison government on Tuesday announced a “practically achievable” path to reaching its new target of net-zero emissions by 2050. As expected, the government will pursue a “technology not taxes” approach – eschewing policies such as a carbon price in favour of technological solutions to reduce emissions. Developing Australia’s fledgling hydrogen industry is a central plank in the plan. This technological shift should not be seen as a cost burden for Australia. Yes, major transformation in industry is needed as it moves away from conventional fossil-fuelled processes. But this green industrial revolution is a potential source of great profit and prosperity – a fact Australia’s business sector has already recognised. Acting quickly, and powering the shift with renewable energy, means Australia can be a world leader in green hydrogen technology and exports, particular to Asia. A ‘priority technology’ Hydrogen can be produced in several ways. So-called “green” hydrogen is produced using electrolysers, powered by renewable energy, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. “Blue” hydrogen is produced from coal or gas, with some carbon emissions trapped and stored underground. A report released earlier this month found Australia could create 395,000 new jobs and generate A$89 billion in new trade by 2040 by investing in clean energy exports. Some of the biggest opportunities were in green hydrogen produced using renewable energy. The National Hydrogen Strategy, published in late 2019 and spearheaded by then-Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, aims to make Australia a world leader in hydrogen. Under the most optimistic scenario, it predicts Australia’s hydrogen industry could be worth A$26 billion to the economy in 2050. Energy Minster Angus Taylor on Tuesday said clean hydrogen was a “priority technology” in the government’s roadmap to reaching net-zero emissions this century, […]

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