According to The Australian Financial Review, the little robot autonomously sweeps up and down the harvested crop rows without a farmer or worker in sight. The Robotics and artificial intelligence are the next big technological “quantum leap” for global agriculture.
On a large grain farm near Emerald in central Queensland, Juliet is toiling 24 hours straight without a break, spraying chemicals on weeds in a 200-hectare wheat field.
Instead she is a car-sized lightweight farm robot; the flagbearer for a small Australian company that is leading the world in robotics in agriculture, which has captured the attention of big players such Treasury Wine Estates and Macquarie Agriculture, and lured some of the smartest young brains in artificial intelligence and mechatronics to its unlikely head office in remote rural Queensland.
The masterminds behind Juliet and SwarmFarm Robotics are Andrew and Jocie Bate, a farm couple from Gindie, 30 kilometres south of Emerald, who have spent the past eight years inventing, developing and streamlining farm robots to take their back porch business from pipe dream to commercial reality.

https://www.afr.com/technology/how-a-farm-in-remote-queensland-became-a-high-tech-ai-hub-20200116-p53s5f

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/ai4549451.html 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Australia has finally taken over from Qatar as the world's No. 1 exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with a record 77.5 million tonnes shipped in 2019, earning an estimated $49 billion, consultancy EnergyQuest says.
While Qatar's final production figures for 2019 are yet to be released, its shipments are expected to be 2.5 million tonnes lower at 75 million tonnes, the firm said in an analysis published recently.
“On an annualised basis, we have previously achieved the global title in some individual months but 2019 is the first time Australia has topped global LNG export performance on a sustained annual basis,” said EnergyQuest founder Graeme Bethune.

https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/australia-finally-claims-lng-crown-from-qatar-20200106-p53p4h
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If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/lng1.html

According to The Australian Financial Review, Japan's Mitsui and Australian partner Beach Energy are kicking off the expansion of their Waitsia onshore gas project north of Perth in line with their commitment to start supplying gas to retailer Alinta Energy in early July 2020.
Alex Mata, project manager for Mitsui's oil and gas business in Australia, said the project would connect the Waitsia field into the huge Dampier-Bunbury gas pipeline (DBNGP), Western Australia's main arterial gas line, expanding the range of potential customers. The field is now reliant on the Parmelia pipeline, which supplies only Perth.

https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/mitsui-starts-gas-expansion-in-western-australia-20191231-p53ntu

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/8532117

According to The Australian Financial Review, top investment bankers at JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank say Japanese raiders will continue to target Australia in 2020 as they look internationally for revenue growth.
"Japan domestically has a market driven by an ageing population, where they're finding organic growth in the domestic market to be challenging," said Alex Cartel,  Deutsche's head of local investment banking.
"The best way to increase revenue growth, clearly they've formed the view, is to grow via outbound M&A."
Mr Cartel, who also noted capital was far cheaper in Japan than most other countries, said these themes already materialised in aggressive bids for Carlton United Breweries and Dulux Group over 2019.
The plays – from Asahi Group and Nippon Paint, respectively – were collectively worth almost $20 billion. But Mr Cartel said this is just a sign of things to come.

https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/japan-predicted-to-dominate-inbound-m-and-a-20191223-p53mfm

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/ma2775231
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According to The Renew Economy, State and federal energy ministers in Australia on Friday have adopted the National Hydrogen Strategy, prepared by chief scientist Alan Finkel, but serious questions remain over whether it will position Australia as a “green hydrogen” leader, as hoped by some, or if it will instead be used as another prop for the coal industry and carbon capture technology.
Japan and South Korea have both established targets for growing their use of hydrogen, particularly in transport and industrial uses. With the ability for hydrogen to be produced using renewable electricity, it provides a pathway to decarbonising sectors beyond the electricity sector.
“An Australian hydrogen industry could generate thousands of jobs, many of them in regional areas. It could add billions of dollars to GDP over coming decades,” the strategy says.
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https://reneweconomy.com.au/finkels-national-hydrogen-strategy-gets-green-light-but-could-be-lifeline-for-coal-69939/

​If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1087195
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Mike Henry knew he wanted to work for BHP a decade before he joined the company. But as CEO, he will face some tough calls.
Mike Henry was 25 years old when he first came across BHP.
After a stint teaching English in Japan, where he met his wife of 30 years, Henry landed a job back in his hometown in Vancouver with the Japanese trading giant Mitsubishi.
"I still remember all the materials I was looking at, the people I was speaking with,” Henry recalled on Thursday. “I still remember now just how impressed I was at the time. I knew then that this was a company I wanted to work for.
“Almost 30 years on, to be afforded the opportunity to run BHP is pretty special."
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https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/mike-henry-s-30-year-journey-to-bhp-s-top-job-20191114-p53aoz

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/bhp6522155 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, the Australian start-up makes products from construction rubble otherwise destined for landfill, which is retrieved from building sites and pulverised before being transformed into stone paper.
Karst has since 2017 produced a range of notebooks made from a material known as 'stone paper', which requires none of the tree-felling or intense water use of traditional wood pulp paper.
At $25 for a single A5 size notebook, the environmental savings make Karst costly compared to A5 notebook competitors, available at Officeworks for as little as $2.
However, Karst co-founder Jonathan Tse said that corporate gifting from clients keen to show an eco-friendly face, including Dermalogica, Facebook and WeWork, had become a major revenue driver.
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https://www.afr.com/companies/manufacturing/start-up-makes-paper-from-construction-rubble-20191113-p53a79

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/9373822 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, an Aussie tech company has won a key deal with a high-end Japanese apple exporter that will give end consumers the ability to trace the origin of fruit.
Brisbane-based Fresh Supply Co has penned a contract to provide its traceability system to Tokyo-based Nihon Agri and two of its apple packing facilities, after what co-founder David Inderias described as a tough process.
"It took a long time to get a yes," Mr Inderias said. "There was no wining and dining – it was me in a shed getting my hands dirty, understanding what they're all about."
The 35-year-old explained that to be able to build the relationship he had to spend time in northern Japan at the apple packing facilities that handle the fruit marketed and sold by Nihon.
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https://www.afr.com/technology/the-brisbane-start-up-making-sure-posh-japanese-apples-are-legit-20191017-p531ji

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/3046840 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Rio Tinto is entering a phase of elevated spending on new and existing mines in Australia's iron ore heartland, warning investors its mines are becoming deeper, wetter and generally more expensive to run after half a century in operation.
China's demand for iron ore has been stronger than expected in 2019, and Rio warned that depletion of mines would occur swiftly, meaning new greenfield mines would need to be built and perhaps even new greenfield iron ore provinces with expensive infrastructure, such as railways.
Rio approved a $US2.6 billion spend on the first phase of the Koodaideri iron ore mine in Western Australia last year, but it said on Thursday that "sustaining" spending to maintain its existing mines would also be $US1.5 billion higher than expected over the next three years.
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https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/rio-tinto-warns-of-rising-iron-ore-spend-on-generational-renewal-20191101-p536ez

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/6165156
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According to The Australian Financial Review, infrastructure funds are brushing up on LNG plants, pipes and jetties, in expectation of a potential asset selldown in Queensland by global major Royal Dutch Shell.
As the big domestic infrastructure teams start thinking about assets up for grabs in the new year, it is understood their focus has turned to so-called "common facilities" at Shell's QCLNG venture, which is one of the big LNG exporters in Queensland.
Investment bank Rothschild is understood to be working with Shell to help consider its options at the project, including thinking about ways to release capital via the sale and leaseback of its infrastructure assets.
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https://www.afr.com/street-talk/big-infra-funds-set-sights-on-queensland-gas-assets-20191030-p535l1

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1205245
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