global

German car manufacturer, BMW, has selected Beckhoff Automation as the global standard supplier for Industrial PC (IPC) technology. The agreement, announced on November 14, will tie the two companies together until 2030, and Beckhoff will supply BMW facilities worldwide, across sites including Germany, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the UK, the US, and Mexico. The … Continue reading German auto maker selects global provider of IPCs →

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a dreary global outlook for the world economy, and the fate of manufacturing lies at the heart of future projections. Noting that slowdowns in manufacturing around the globe has been part of sluggish growth in 2019, the sector that is of most concern is the automobile manufacturing industry, … Continue reading Australia bucks global manufacturing downturn →

Global electronic components distributor, Digi-Key Electronics, received the award of Electronics Components Distributor of the Year 2019. Awarded by Indian electronics magazine Electronics Maker, at their Best of Industry Awards presentation, the award recognised Digi-Key as a leading performing in the market. “It’s an honour to be recognised by Electronics Maker in this space,” said … Continue reading Digi-Key recognised with distributor award →

In collaboration with the national industry associations of G20 countries, the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) has called for action to confront the dissolution of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute settlement system. The WTO established the rule-based framework that Australian manufacturing businesses that rely on international exports and imports depend upon. With Australia’s export … Continue reading Ai Group joins call for stable international trade regime →

Toyota affiliate, Denso Corporation, announced last week on its global website that it has decided to increase its shareholding in Renesas Electronics Corporation by 4.5 per cent in a deal worth US$800 million (A$1 billion) to accelerate the development of various in-vehicle systems including automated driving systems that are becoming more advanced, complicated, and larger in … Continue reading Denso to increase stake in Renesas in $1bn deal, focus on automated driving systems →

Earlier this week, Toyota Motor Corporation has announced that it will market more than 10 all-electric vehicle (EV) models globally in the early 2020s. It also said that the investment on the battery development will most likely exceed 1.5 trillion yen (A$17.4bn) through 2030. With tightening global regulations on emissions and to counter its market rivals … Continue reading Toyota to ramp up manufacturing of battery EV models by early 2020s →

Australia’s global competitiveness ranking has dropped out of the top 20 for the first time in over 20 years, falling from 17 to 21 in the past year. The 2017 edition of IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook has again ranked Hong Kong first, followed by Switzerland and Singapore as the US dropped out of the top … Continue reading Australian global competitiveness lowest in 20 years →

Capgemini has released its Smart Factories report, which offers a global snapshot of the adoption of IoT-enabled factories and their impact on the global economy. According to the report, smart factories will deliver a 27 per cent increase in manufacturing efficiency over the next five years, adding $500 billion to the global economy. This increase … Continue reading Smart factories: A global snapshot →