According to the Australian Financial Review, one of the country’s largest agribusiness groups, Elders, is paying $475 million to acquire Delta Ag, a private-equity backed firm that provides everything from real estate services to bulk fertiliser supply.
The deal to buy a rival one-third its size which operates in many of the same towns is expected to be scrutinised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Delta has been largely owned by Odyssey Private Equity, which bought into the company in 2019. Odyssey had previously considered selling its stake in 2022, when it drafted in UBS to look at potential transactions.

https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/agribusiness-group-elders-in-475m-buyout-of-rival-delta-ag-20241115-p5kqyt
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, aspiring home owners earning an average income of about $100,000 can afford just 10 per cent of all Australian homes, the lowest proportion on record, the latest ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability report shows.
The squeeze on affordability is a combination of high interest rates and rising house prices. The record low is well down on the 50 per cent share of all properties that were genuinely affordable for middle-income earners in December 2020. It’s also sharply lower than the 40 per cent recorded in March 2022, before interest rates started rising.
Even high-income earners have drastically fewer options, with just half of the housing market affordable for those making an average of $172,000 gross income per year. This is down from 80 per cent at the end of 2020.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/average-buyer-can-afford-only-10pc-of-all-homes-20241119-p5krrj

According to The Asahi Shimbun, a futuristic “human washing machine” that caused a stir at the 1970 Japan World Exposition has undergone a 21st century makeover for the Osaka Kansai Expo in April.
The original machine, exhibited by Sanyo Electric Co., now Panasonic Holdings Corp., didn’t catch on commercially.
But more than a half century later, Osaka-based showerhead maker Science Co. is developing the new version based on cutting-edge technology.
It plans to exhibit the “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (human washing machine of the future) inside the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion run by the Osaka prefectural and city governments.
Visitors to the exhibition site will be allowed to try it out.
The company is also planning to release a home-use edition.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15482351
 

According to The Asahi Shimbun, Japanese companies that emit more than 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually will be tapped to participate in the government’s carbon emissions trading system, set to take effect in fiscal 2026, the industry ministry said.
The program is expected to apply to between 300 and 400 companies, mainly in the steel, electricity, aviation, logistics and food manufacturing sectors.
Under the system, each company will be assigned an emissions quota, with penalties liable when those limits are exceeded. 
Emissions trading, a type of “carbon pricing” which charges companies based on their CO2 emissions, has been adopted worldwide as a measure to help reduce global warming.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15517987

According to The Australian Financial Review, the new chief executive of Tomago Aluminium, the country’s biggest electricity user, says the smelter’s goal of switching to a predominantly clean power later this decade is not achievable, derailing its emissions reduction targets for 2030 and putting the plant’s future at risk.
Jerome Dozol, who took over as chief executive in July, said the energy price on offer was too high for the Tomago smelter near Newcastle to keep running without government assistance. He called for “urgent action” to secure continued operations at the plant, whose existing electricity supply contract with AGL Energy expires at the end of 2028.
The difficulties being experienced by Tomago point to a wider problem across industrial and commercial businesses that want to switch to cleaner electricity supplies, but need guaranteed, round-the-clock power.
That requirement does not align with an electricity supply system that is increasingly moving towards weather-dependent wind and solar, and where batteries and other storage plants are still inadequate to fill in the gaps.

https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/the-country-s-biggest-aluminium-smelter-says-green-target-unreachable-20241015-p5kick
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, Gold Coast rocket company Gilmour Space has secured long-awaited approval to launch its Australian-made rocket into space after a two-year battle with the regulator that caused doubts among its investors and future customers over the start-up’s future.
The company, which is backed by venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures and superannuation giant HostPlus, is attempting to launch a low-cost rocket into orbit from a space station outside the northern Queensland town of Bowen.
Gilmour Space is valued at $605 million and represents Australia’s most promising chance to own a piece of the space market, delivering satellites and other hardware in competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, but it has been hit by delays in attaining regulatory approval to conduct its first launch.

https://www.afr.com/technology/gold-coast-rocket-company-gets-green-light-for-first-launch-20241103-p5kni0
​

According to The Australian Financial Review, NSW will early next year open a fast-track housing process, giving a new entity, the Housing Delivery Authority, power to rezone land and approve large development proposals without deferring to local councils.
“The creation of the new Housing Delivery Authority has the potential to significantly reduce planning time frames and investment uncertainty, allowing quality homes to be delivered more quickly for first home buyers and essential workers,” Stockland chief executive Tarun Gupta said.
“If implemented successfully, these important changes bring the NSW planning system into line with others around the country and will enable a significant increase in the supply of housing across the state.”
The reforms will apply to new developments with an estimated cost of $60 million (100 or more homes on average) in Greater Sydney and a cost of $30 million (40 or more homes) in regional NSW.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/nsw-to-fast-track-approval-of-large-housing-plans-20241115-p5kr1k

According to The Asahi Shimbun, a research institution here has developed the world’s first automated manufacturing equipment to create next-generation perovskite solar cell panels.
Officials at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) say the equipment speeds up the process and improves the quality of the perovskite solar panels.
The panels have conventionally been made manually.
Perovskite cells, also known as “flexible solar cells,” are lightweight and thin. They can be used at locations, such as rooftops or curved walls, where it would be difficult to install conventional silicon solar cells.
Moreover, perovskite solar cells can generate power even when it is cloudy. They could become a key instrument in efforts to curb global warming.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15464123
​

According to The Asahi Shimbun, fruit processor and vendor Dole Japan Inc. refuses to let bananas that are unsellable go to waste. It turns them into charcoal.
It is hoping its banana-based fuel will become commercially available for use in barbecues and other leisure activities early in 2025.
Tokyo-based Dole Japan said it aims to reduce food loss.
“We expect to sell charcoal at certain retailers and online shopping sites,” said Dole Japan President Hiroshi Aoki. “We will be releasing it as early as next spring, provided our preparations are completed smoothly.”
Finnicky Japanese consumers shun bananas that have skin blemishes, are bruised or too big, no matter how tasty they are.
Dole Japan said it is forced to discard 20,000 tons of the fruit annually in the Philippines and elsewhere.
In 2021, Dole Japan initiated the Mottainai Banana Project with producers and other entities to make use of those bananas for drinks and confectionery.
About 900 tons of bananas were recycled in 2023 under the initiative. Dole Japan is looking to raise the figure to 5,000 tons within a few years.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15469085

According to The Australian Financial Review, fourth-generation Fremantle fisherman Fedele Camarda has been treading water for four years.
A Chinese ban on importing Australian rock lobsters had denied the WA industry its major customer. The move drastically reduced prices and cut margins as costs climbed.
However, recent confirmation that China would lift its sanctions on Australian rock lobsters was “a light at the end of the tunnel” for hundreds of fishermen, Mr Camarda said.
“To have China back and buying the product at that time of the year, it helps us a lot if we’re going to get a better return for our product,” Mr Camarda said.
“Just being able to move the product when China’s in play, it means that the volumes that we catch, it’s a lot easier to move that product.”

https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/wa-fishermen-celebrate-end-of-lobster-ban-20241011-p5khnu