Month: October 2016

EIF International is a privately owned international freight forwarder and third-party logistics (3PL) provider. The team at EIF boast a wealth of knowledge and experience that enables them to provide a comprehensive range of solutions at a cost-effective price that is flexible, reliable and customised to meet your needs. According to EIF, its point of difference lies in its ability to provide each client with their own dedicated account manager, as communication is essential to a smooth transaction of cargo. Your EIF account manager will be a hands-on operator who will handle all your shipments, from order placement, through track-and-trace, arrival and customs clearance – to delivery. EIF’s people have a passion for you, the customer, which enables the company to go the extra mile in assisting in the growth of your company. Your dedicated account manager will get to understand your business requirements and ensure all of your particular needs are met. Communication is paramount to a seamless service and key to strategic partnerships. EIF’s quality staff are all hand-picked and…

This July saw a surge in wholesale electricity prices in South Australia, rising to an average of $321 per megawatt hour, compared with $80/MWh for July 2015. The price spikes drew extensive media coverage, with some commentators claiming SA’s extensive adoption of renewable power had left it exposed in a month of unusually low winds. The Minerals Council of Australia claimed that SA’s decision to “disproportionally rely on intermittent wind and solar power” raised the risk of “higher prices, supply instability and greater reliance on imported power”. These claims were met with equally vocal counter-arguments. The Climate Council published a report suggesting that electricity price spikes in SA had actually fallen as renewable electricity had risen. Professor Hugh Saddler of the Australian National University (ANU) argued that the problem lay with broader flaws in the SA wholesale electricity market, and that wind power in fact helped to smooth out more frequent price spikes. The SA episode demonstrates that renewable energy remains the focus…

Eastgate is a family-owned and operated repetition engineering company that brings a 60-year-old reputation for quality together with high-tech precision and state-of-the-art machinery. Located in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo, Eastgate is a one-stop-shop for custom-made component manufacturing. The company’s services encompass assembly, welding, bending, polishing and coating components. Eastgate is staffed by versatile and multi-skilled tradespeople, enabling it to serve a diverse range of industries. Its clients come from just about every industry under the sun, spanning from construction to rail to marine sectors, and include large multinational companies and government agencies. Founded in the 1950s, by the 1960s Eastgate established itself as a successful and highly regarded machine shop. In recent years, the company has embraced automation, resulting in a sharp improvement in work quality and allowing it to expand beyond its traditional high-production, high-volume work to encompass small, customised production runs. Eastgate’s transformation originated three years ago when a change of ownership instigated a drive to improve efficiency and accuracy. That saw…

Readings below 50 indicate contraction in activity, with the distance from 50 indicating the strength of the decrease. September’s stabilisation in the Australian PMI was heavily influenced by activity in the food & beverages sub-sector, which recovered after contracting in August (up 4.1 points to 52.8). The large machinery & equipment sub-sector also moved out of contraction (up 4.6 points to 52.8). Three of the other manufacturing sub-sectors maintained August’s expansion (that is, above 50 points in three-month moving averages): printing & recorded media (down 0.8 points to 62.8), metal products (down 4.6 points to 51.3), and petroleum & chemical products (down 2.1 points to 52.7). The non-metallic mineral products (down 7.6 points to 46.0) and wood & paper products (down 3.4 points to 48.6) sub-sectors slipped into contraction in September. “The manufacturing sector avoided a deeper fall in September after the sharp drop recorded in August,” said Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox. “The food and beverages sub-sector was the major swing factor with a…

Manufacturing has been the backbone of the Australian economy for decades and, despite recent pressures from overseas, it still plays a vital role in generating innovation, technological change, and high-skill jobs. Manufacturing suppliers and user businesses have unique exposures due to the nature of their activities, and your insurance program must cater for these risks accordingly. Typical exposures include Fire and Business Interruption, Public and Products Liability, Machinery Breakdown, Professional Indemnity and Marine Transit. Furthermore, specialist insurances such as Product Recall and Trade Credit can be important elements of a comprehensive insurance program for a manufacturing business. Similarly, the risk of potential Statutory Liability exposures arising from your workplace can be transferred, and the threat of your Intellectual Property being compromised through Cyber-attack is ever-increasing. Through our relationship with AMTIL and many existing AMTIL clients, Network Insurance Group provides AMTIL members specialised insurance and risk management services in General Insurance, Workers Compensation and Life Insurance. Network Insurance delivers its clients a personalised, tailored service that comes from its…

This year at IMTS, held in September in Chicago, we had a number of meetings and presentations focused on global manufacturing trends, as well as current and future issues that may impact on certain economies. The Network commissions Oxford Economics to produce a 100 page bi-annual report which takes into account the sum and consumption of manufacturing technology across 23 key economies and eight key industry sectors. This is combined with key economic data and other factors to come up with a modeling report that has proven to be an accurate forecast for manufacturing growth over the years. Jeremy Leonard from Oxford Economics gave a thorough overview of the statistical data that went into the latest Outlook Report. It was reported that there has been disappointing growth in all parts of the world, leading to world GDP growth of 2.2% over the past 12 months. When you consider that China (6.9% increase in GDP) and India (7.2% increase), whilst down on expectations,…

The three-axis, 4m x 2m machine features an additional C-axis to enable the use of steered tooling such as variable angled knives, steered reciprocating knives for duct board and fibreglass insulation, or steered pizza cutter wheels. Powered by an AC servo-motor, it is capable of rotating up to 500rpm.To decrease production time, ART has equipped its XR Router series with a gantry-mounted covered automated ten-position tool changer, which turns variable-angle cutting, V-grooving and routing into one efficient fully automated process. Soon after purchasing his XR5000 router two-and-a-half years ago, Lintott saw the potential for expanding its use from his existing fibreglass business, based in Woodford, Queensland, to supplying CNC routed products to existing and new clients. “The machine suddenly expanded the scope of the work we could do,” he says. “Along with the potential for involving ourselves in areas we hadn’t previously…