Erich Hofmann says despite the high dollar, the manufacturing sector can compete internationally by targeting top-end tech-heavy products Source: The Australian
HERE are three scenes this week from the Australian manufacturing sector _ in Melbourne, in the Queensland city of Gladstone, and in Perth.
In the industrial western suburbs of Melbourne at Altona, close to Port Phillip Bay and within walking distance of Julia Gillard's house, 350 workers are told that they've only got 10 weeks' work left. The reason given: the strong Australian dollar means it's no longer economical for the Japanese car manufacturer to organise its global operations so that Australian-made cars can be sold in the Middle East.
Then try the port city of Gladstone in central Queensland, where workers look out over a whole pile of 42-inch steel pipes freshly arrived from China. They will be used to make a pipeline that transports coal-seam gas from southwestern Queensland to the port town, where three plants at $15 billion each are being constructed to make the gas into a liquid form for export. It's the biggest single industrial project in Australia at the moment, but almost certainly the steel pipes sitting on the Gladstone wharves are made from iron ore exported from Australia which is fired up in blast furnaces using coal exported from Australia.
The Australian
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