According to The Australian Financial Review, CBH Group, the country’s largest co-operative, is preparing to derail GrainCorp’s ambitions of becoming a major biofuel player, closing in on a partnership with BP that would involve building its own large-scale oilseed crushing plant in Perth.
The move would also stymie GrainCorp’s push to extend its operations from its traditional base along the east coast into Western Australia. The ASX-listed group has outlined plans to spend several hundred million dollars on a plant in WA and has been in negotiations about securing a site, canola supply and a partnership with BP and others.
BP has been weighing up a $1 billion-plus investment in converting an oil import terminal at Kwinana, south of Perth, into a renewable fuel production hub and will need feedstock from a major oilseed crushing plant. CBH has spare land at its Kwinana grain export terminal and could deliver canola to a crushing plant with its fleet of locomotives.

https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/cbh-gatecrashes-graincorp-s-biofuels-strategy-closes-in-on-bp-deal-20240301-p5f90v
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According to The Australian Financial Review, the supply of new homes will crash to the lowest level in over a decade by 2026, worsening housing and rental affordability, and leaving the federal government far short of its goal to build 1.2 million homes by mid-2029.
Across capital cities, 79,000 new homes will be finished in 2026, a drop of 26 per cent compared with last year due to planning bottlenecks, labour shortages and soaring material costs.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/new-housing-supply-to-hit-decade-low-20240318-p5fd6t
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According to The Jiji News, Japan's welfare ministry proposed to an expert panel a plan to conditionally allow foreigners to engage in home care services for the elderly.
Under the plan, aimed at expanding the scope of jobs available to such personnel and easing labor shortages in the sector, nursing offices that hire such foreign staff will be obliged to provide them with necessary training programs.
Currently, foreign technical intern trainees and foreign workers with so-called specified skills are allowed to work at care facilities in the country. They are banned from engaging in home help services to provider one-on-one assistance to users, however, due to concerns about their communication skills in Japanese.

https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/31967
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According to The Nikkei Asia, amid challenges posed by the weather, inflation-hit consumers and China, Japanese trading house Marubeni is attempting to increase its exports of beef to its home market from cows it fattens in the eastern part of Australia.
Three decades ago, almost all the beef Marubeni exported from Rangers Valley went to Japan; it now accounts for less than 10% of the company's sales.
These days it mainly exports tongue and skirt steaks to Japan, which is one of the few countries that consumes these cuts. Faced with the global challenges of today, though, the Tokyo-based company is stepping up efforts to increase its beef sales in Japan.
Beef from Rangers Valley, in the eastern Australian state of New South Wales, was praised for its palatability by visitors who tasted samples at Marubeni's booth at a food fair held in mid-February at the Makuhari Messe event hall in Chiba, south of Tokyo. The company displayed big hunks of red marbled meat that charmed visitors.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Food-Beverage/Japan-s-Marubeni-looks-to-hook-its-home-market-on-Aussie-beef

According to The Australian Financial Review, Rio Tinto has bowed to sustained pressure from big investors to start reporting how much it spends on so-called green steel projects and other efforts to reduce carbon emissions for iron ore mined in Australia and turned into steel in China.
Rio said that in response to talks with investors and the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) it had agreed to beef up its reporting on efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the processing of iron ore by its mainly Chinese steel-making customers.
The company intends to spend up to $US6 billion on decarbonisation across its business to 2030. That figure was reduced from $US7.5 billion in December largely based on Rio deciding the technology was not advanced enough to convert its iron ore fleet to electric power by the end of the decade.

https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/rio-bows-to-investor-pressure-on-green-steel-spending-20240319-p5fdnt
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a consortium of Japanese companies will set sail on domestically building an ammonia carrier ship that is fueled by ammonia, which emits no carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned.
The cleaner fuel source is part of an effort to decarbonize seafaring vessels, which are a major source of global CO2 emissions. 
The ship, scheduled for completion in 2026, is expected, following a demonstration voyage, to be the world’s first vessel of its kind and to be used in international shipping.
The plan was jointly released Jan. 25 by four companies including shipping giant Nippon Yusen KK (NYK).
Use of the ship, which co-fires ammonia with heavy fuel oil, can cut emissions of greenhouse gases, including CO2, by more than 80 percent as compared to when fuel oil alone is used.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15159500

According to The Australian Financial Review, Melbourne’s apartment market could be starting to emerge from years of sluggish capital growth after values rebounded sharply in a number of inner suburbs over the past three months, data from CoreLogic shows.
Apartment prices in Parkville, Carlton, North Melbourne, Southbank, Docklands, East Melbourne and central Melbourne all accelerated and have reversed their declines.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/suburbs-where-apartment-values-are-gaining-the-most-momentum-20240313-p5fc0k
 

According to The Jiji News, a Japanese power generation company, Jera Co and engineering firm IHI Corp unveiled to the press a test facility at a thermal power plant in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, for burning coal mixed with ammonia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The test will run from March 26 to June 19, and based on its results, the commercial use of coal-ammonia fuel is planned to begin in the late 2020s at the earliest.

https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/31798
 

According to The Jiji news, Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. said the major Japanese automakers will cooperate with each other in wide-ranging fields associated with electric vehicles.
Exchanging a memorandum of understanding for comprehensive collaboration the same day, they will start considering how they can specifically work together in, among others, developing cutting-edge software platforms and core components for EVs.

https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/31848#goog_rewarded
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, Fortescue Energy boss Mark Hutchinson says Australia must get power prices down to about $US30 ($45.36) a megawatt hour if it wants to be a hydrogen superpower, under a goal that would effectively require a halving of power prices across much of the eastern states.
Mr Hutchinson’s power price challenge came as he warned that Fortescue and Incitec Pivot would find it “tough” to proceed with a plan to retrofit Queensland’s Gibson Island fertiliser plant towards a future in hydrogen and ammonia unless governments helped mitigate the high cost of clean energy.

https://www.afr.com/business-summit/fortescue-says-hydrogen-hopes-rest-on-a-halving-of-power-prices-20240311-p5fbjk
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