Today
- Exclusive
- Energy transition
The country’s biggest aluminium smelter says green target unreachable
Rio Tinto-backed Tomago, which uses more power than any other industrial operation in Australia, says renewable energy is too expensive and in short supply.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Amcor’s whopper $76b tie-up shows it’s ready to rule the world
It’s one of the biggest deals of the year – and the financial numbers are eye-catching. Imagine $US650 million in synergies.
- Anthony Macdonald
This Month
Labor’s $15b reconstruction fund makes landmark first investment
Donald Trump’s retreat from the renewable energy transition is good timing for plans to reboot domestic manufacturing, says the National Reconstruction Fund head.
- Tom McIlroy
Orica profit jumps on demand for explosive technology
The chemicals and explosives maker boosted its margins by selling digital blasting technologies and premium products to miners.
- Mark Wembridge
Gupta owes $684,000 to suppliers in Sydney’s industrial heartland
An Australian business owned by one of India’s richest families is among those chasing payments, while Aurizon extends ban of iron ore transport at Whyalla.
- Simon Evans
Sanjeev Gupta strikes deal to stay afloat. For the fifth time
The embattled industrialist and Whyalla steelworks owner has offered his creditors yet another term sheet – one he says is necessary to save his UK operation.
- Hans van Leeuwen
Incitec Pivot unwinds fertiliser business as write-offs spike to $1b
The company’s new chief executive, Mauro Neves, says he wants to offload the division by the end of next year. And he expects strong economic growth in the US.
- Simon Evans
Pratt announces move to the US
One of Australia’s richest men is a member of Donald Trump’s private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and has previously voiced admiration for the US president-elect.
- Primrose Riordan
Gupta ‘has reached the end of the road’ on $300m debt, court told
San Francisco investment giant White Oak Global Advisors has given the Whyalla steelworks owner 10 weeks to reach a settlement. He says he’s confident he can.
- Updated
- Hans van Leeuwen
The two different worlds of Sanjeev Gupta
This week on The Fin podcast, Simon Evans and Myriam Robin on Sanjeev Gupta’s flashy property purchase, his financial troubles and the SA town caught in the middle.
CRH’s move on Civilmart secures $400m payday for investors
The Irish giant’s acquisition of CPE Capital’s Civilmart was far from a tiny bolt-on.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Net zero’s uneasy pact with carbon capture and storage
Santos and Beach Energy’s Moomba project hopes to overturn the technology’s weak reputation. Its detractors say it has already had 20 years to prove them wrong.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Is it third time lucky for this little-known manufacturing billionaire?
Vikas Rambal is thinking big. After trying his hand at two fertiliser plants in Western Australia, the businessman is plotting his largest project yet.
- Updated
- Jennifer Hewett
October
Whyalla steelworks boss exits in Sanjeev Gupta shake-up
A former Fortescue Metals executive who ran the plant for two years is departing as the British industrialist sets up an urgent “Back to Black” taskforce to try to stem losses.
- Simon Evans
- Exclusive
- Sanjeev Gupta
Gupta’s InfraBuild slumps to loss as it props up ailing empire
Confidential documents show the company, which traces its roots back to BHP’s steel empire, won’t collect $6 million that it had loaned the British businessman.
- Simon Evans
Struggling Volkswagen moves to close three plants in Germany
“We cannot continue as before,” VW boss Thomas Schäfer said, as tens of thousands of workers fear losing their jobs, following increased competition from China.
- Craig Trudell and Stefan Nicola
‘Series of speculations’: Santos climate targets under attack
The Federal Court case brought by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility alleges Santos deceived consumers with its clean energy claims.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
- Postcard
- Sanjeev Gupta
Sanjeev Gupta’s entire steelmaking empire is teetering on the brink
Questions hang over the future of the British businessman’s Whyalla operations as his European mills shut down or fend off insolvency.
- Hans van Leeuwen
Blast from the past: Molycop pins hopes on 2025 IPO
Molycop’s Omaha-based CEO Jim Anderson met with a handful of fund managers in late September, reacquainting them with the idea of an ASX listing.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Boeing seeks more than $37b to avert cash crunch
The troubled plane-maker is looking to shore up its balance sheet and boost access to cash, as it tries to avoid demotion to junk status.
- Julie Johnsson and Josyana Joshua