A manufacturing engineer describes the concept for a technology that could lead to more efficient production – and perhaps a tool to revive US manufacturing.
We can use renewable energy to turn raw ore into higher-value processed metals, and that’s good for jobs and exports.
Iron ore piles at Dampier, Western Australia. Australia could convert iron oxide to metal for export, producing it with no emissions.
CHRISTIAN SPROGOE/ Rio Tinto
Eminent economist Ross Garnaut says if climate action fails, he fears the consequences ‘would be beyond contemporary Australia’. But zero-emissions iron and aluminium could be the way forward.
Workers pack coffee sachets at the Dormans coffee factory in Nairobi, Kenya.
EPA/Daniel Irungu
With an outdated story that gives up on manufacturing, Africa will fail to close the huge digital gap it still faces.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese will make a “vision statement” on Tuesday, where he will emphasise manufacturing job opportunities flowing from the renewables expansion.
AAP/Paul Miller
Labor leader Anthony Albanese will emphasise his party’s pro-business stance in a speech on Tuesday, departing from Bill Shorten’s criticism of the “top end of town”.
A safer, more flexible type of industrial robot is disrupting manufacturing.
Gas burning at Victoria’s Longford Gas Conditioning Plant. Australia is the world’s largest exporter but intends t import gas to shore up local supplies.
Joe Castro/AAP
If Australia is the biggest gas exporter in the world, why are we shipping it back in? Because the gas market is dysfunctional - and it means consumers are suffering.
The Fed’s Jerome Powell keeps his cards close to his chest.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
While fashion companies and governments are making commitments to reduce fashion waste, consumers have an opportunity to push them to act more quickly.
Show Works, based in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, makes dance floors, dance equipment and theatre scenery.
Andrew Warren, used with permission
Rezoning to mixed-use residential development drove small manufacturers and creative producers out of the inner city. The result is less diversity of land uses, jobs and services where we most want it.
Some circular economy business models are based on case studies, others are more theoretical, yet it’s hard to get a comprehensive overview. Why? Simple: Because the opportunities are nearly endless.
The Trump administration says its trade policy saved the U.S. steel industry.
AP Photo/Jim Mone
Incoming Director of the Australian Institute of Business and Economics at UQ, and Professor of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University