SA Economy

[rev]

Wow, all that success listed, and SA is still an economic backwater.

[arki]

It isn't WA, Queensland or Tasmania consistently creating companies like Drakes or Coopers it is SA.

Not sure if sarcastic? WA has national HQs for Wesfarmers, Seven West, Woodside and QLD Suncorp, BOQ, Virgin Aus etc. But sure, we have Drakes, Coopers and Shahin. I am not saying we don't have some good businesses located here, including those you listed, but most are small players interstate and hardly household names.

The worst part is there are companies like TWE which SHOULD be based here but operate out of Victoria.

[cmet]

The only truly large company based in SA is Santos


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Waewick]

Wow, all that success listed, and SA is still an economic backwater.

Sadly this virus is going to show it more than ever.

SA is going to be an interesting place after this is done

[rev]

Wow, all that success listed, and SA is still an economic backwater.

Sadly this virus is going to show it more than ever.

SA is going to be an interesting place after this is done

We can change all that, by restarting our manufacturing.
Use our resources to supply our manufacturing.

Everyone was lamenting how we missed the boat with the resources boom in WA and QLD.
Well fuck selling to china, use our resources to supply our manufacturing, to create jobs for Australians, and grow our economy.

Australia first needs to be the policy from now on, regardless of whose in government.

[rev]

SA positions for “jobs bonanza” as nation looks to rebuild manufacturing base
Daniel Wills, Jade Gailberger, The Advertiser
April 10, 2020 9:20pm
Subscriber only

South Australia is angling to cash in on a possible “jobs bonanza” as Australia looks to rebuild its local manufacturing base after coronavirus and be self-reliant in times of disaster.

Premier Steven Marshall says SA’s combination of a skilled manufacturing workforce and hi-tech defence and space investment has us perfectly positioned to grow again.

“I think there will be a resetting of the balance,” he said.

“I think that post the coronavirus, we will be looking for a lot more balance in our supply chains. This could create a jobs bonanza in the manufacturing sector in SA.” Mr Marshall said he expected to see federal policy changes in support of local manufacturing.

“In recent years, if people could purchase product from overseas at a lower price, then that would be an attractive proposition,” he said.

“I think that post corona the Federal Government could change their policy towards a whole range of products which have in recent times relinquished local manufacturing capability.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signalled he wants to reinforce national “sovereignty”, forging a new balance between free global trade and supporting strategic local industry.

SA has already stepped up with $1.5 million in support for local fast food packaging firm Detmold, which will pump out 145 million medical masks in this desperate time of need.

Employment in SA manufacturing has been battered over recent years and decades, as job-creating industries like building cars and whitegoods have gradually shifted offshore. After employing a peak of 114,000 people in 1990, the sector now supports 75,000 SA jobs. A key reason for rejecting an overseas submarine build was to create self-reliance during war.

This week, Mr Morrison said: “What we are in currently at the moment I think highlights the need for us, of course to be an open trading nation, that has been a core part”.

“Equally, we need to look carefully at our domestic economic sovereignty as well,” he said.

“These are issues that the government … is spending a lot of time focusing on at present”.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has relaxed rules to allow medical technology companies to work together to co-ordinate the supply and potential manufacture of ventilators, testing kits, personal protective equipment and key coronavirus equipment.

SA Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said defence, food, energy and medical equipment were all areas where the state should be looking to create jobs and strengthen national security.

“I have never subscribed to the view that manufacturing is dead in SA,” he said.

“There is demand for innovative manufacturing in first world economies, even with relatively high labour costs. With appropriate government policy … that presents an opportunity for SA.

“There’s not an easy switch you can flick. It’s going to take concerted public policy effort.”

He said that would require a careful balance that does not scare private investment.

Federal Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews said: “This pandemic has already shown we have incredible manufacturing capability in this country and when opportunities arise our manufacturers can take them”.

“What’s important is making sure those opportunities are still there once borders reopen and demand subsides,” she said.

“The Federal Government is already supporting Australian manufacturers to either increase their output or begin producing essential medical supplies like masks and hand sanitiser.

“I’m very committed to ensuring this spirit of making and buying Australian continues.”

Ms Andrews said SA’s burgeoning space and defence industries were an added advantage for the state.

“SA could play an even further role, given the extensive advanced manufacturing capability that exists in the state thanks to the defence industry and space sector,” she said.

“It’s on governments at all levels, industry and consumers to maintain that.”

There are also hopes that a much lower Australian dollar, which has been falling amid and oil price war and coronavirus disruption, will supercharge local exporting. Some defence watchers believe it will also make local component manufacture much cheaper than doing it in France.

Mr Marshall said the State Government’s $200 million spend on trades training was essential.

“SA is in a unique position to benefit from any renewed focus on manufacturing onshore, particularly given the very keen focus we have on building up trade skills,” he said.

“We really genuinely are the only state in Australia making inroads into increasing the number of trade qualified personnel. It’s definitely the right strategy.”

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/coronavi ... 7fac498477

[rev]

Its started, GOOD NEWS.
Even better news will be when all Western countries take similar meausres.
Like I've been saying for ages, we need to be self reliant. Its a matter of national security and sovereignty.

Ordinary people can play their part too by making a conscious effort to not buy made in China as much as possible and where possible. Go deeper and research who owns what.
Support Australian companies, jobs and our economy, first and foremost. As long as its not made in China.

We wouldn't have bought made in nazi Germany, so why buy products made in another hostile anti-democratic country like China..

Japan Ditches China In Multi-Billion Dollar Coronavirus Shakeout

Kenneth RapozaSenior Contributor

The supply chain will never be the same. Take that to the bank.

It’s not Donald “Tariff Man” Trump’s fault anymore. It’s the new SARS coronavirus’ fault for shaking things up. On Thursday, geopolitical watchdogs at The Spectator Index noted that Japan’s government would spend upwards of $2 billion helping its multinationals leave China.

Japan’s decision to help company’s source elsewhere, a timely and expensive endeavour after multinational corporations that have made China their go-to manufacturing hub for decades, comes at a time when U.S. companies are leaving, too, even though there is no official push to do so.

Global manufacturing consulting firm Kearney released its seventh annual Reshoring Index on Tuesday, showing what it called a “dramatic reversal” of a five-year trend as domestic U.S. manufacturing in 2019 commanded a significantly greater share versus 14 Asian exporters tracked in the study. Manufacturing imports from China were the hardest hit.

“People have been talking about leaving China for many years now and that is why we started this research in the first place, to find real data, to get the math right on this,” says Patrick Van den Bossche, a partner at Kearney. “What we are seeing now is that companies are taking a hard look at it. Because of the pandemic and supply chain disruptions it caused, people will be able to put a number to this and when they can present their board with a nice mathematical equation about supply risk, they’ll do it and many will see that they must diversify away from China.”

Within the existing globalization framework, the question of dependence on supply chains from China for both European and U.S. companies needs to be addressed.

Of the world’s 10 largest ports, seven of them are in China. It was built to be the world’s manufacturer. It was not built to be the world’s importer. China wants to make stuff. It has 1.3 billion people to feed and house.

As European countries like Spain and Portugal realize their dependence on the service economy hurt them in a lockdown, they, like China, might want to make important things like medical equipment. These are things Europe and the U.S. had to import from China during a public health emergency.

China is trying to repair the reputational damage caused by yet another SARS epidemic, this time from Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province. The first version came out in 2002-03.

At the moment, it looks like their relations with the U.S. and western Europe are frayed. Why not follow in Japan’s footsteps with state funding to get some important items out of there?

“For national security reasons alone, I think there will be some pretty massive onshoring especially for items that are needed in emergencies like the one we are in now,” says Lily Fang, a professor of finance at INSEAD, a global business school outside of Paris, with a campus also in Singapore. Fang is originally from China.

“China will be a loser in that respect,” she says. “I think it will be a good thing for the world economy. But it is bad news for China. They will need more internal demand.”

China is already relying more on internal demand so the “decoupling” of the U.S. economy from China isn’t exactly a death knell.

Millions were laid off in China over the last two months, including blue collar workers at privately owned factories. A lot of that labor is going to Vietnam. In other words, it’s not only the Japanese and the Americans who are leaving the mainland and setting up shop elsewhere. The Chinese business owners are doing it themselves.

On the Japan front, it was Bloomberg that first reported about the island nation’s interest in departing. And putting up the money to make it happen.

The subsidies and direct loans includes 220 billion yen ($2 billion) for companies shifting production back to Japan and 23.5 billion yen for those seeking to move production to other countries, according to details of the plan posted online.

Xi Jinping was supposed to be on a state visit to Japan early this month. It would have been the first official visit of a Chinese leader to Japan in roughly 10 years, but it was postponed last month due to the coronavirus. No new date has been set.

China is Japan’s biggest trading partner, but imports from China slumped by almost half in February because many factories were closed. Those closures meant Japanese manufacturers had no place to go for supply.

Even as companies leave, China is hard to replace. For many components, it is the only game in town.

“There are certain industries like electronics that are going to require a lot of time before a new source can replicate the kind of ecosystem that China has,” says Van den Bossche. “China’s a giant, but it’s taking a lot of hits and all those cuts and scrapes here and there are an opportunity for other countries. Who are the enlightened countries that will take its place?”

Supply chain auditing firm QIMA issued a report on Thursday showing that sourcing from China declined 19% in late March as a result of the pandemic. That doesn’t mean that companies have found new trading partners, however. It just means that orders fell, and so factories were not requesting inspection audits.

In the first two months of 2020, the China shutdowns exacerbated the traditional first-quarter slowdown of Chinese manufacturing usually blamed on the Lunar New Year holiday. QIMA data showed that demand for inspections and audits in the three weeks of February following the Lunar New Year celebrations plummeted by 75%. And by the end of March, as lockdowns began to lift in China, local manufacturing rallied briefly until Europe and the U.S. got sick with COVID-19.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/ ... f582853410

[Waewick]

Really dumb question here, but there is a lot of space up Northern Australia with existing export facilities.

Instead of Northern Australia AG, why not Northern Australia manufacturing?

[rev]

IMF says Australia's economy will shrink 7% this year but will rebound next year and regain most of it.
Personally I think once this is all over we will see high growth for the next few years as manufacturing is revived and domestic tourism I believe will boom.

[western]

I might have become out of touch concerning the WA appeal to get submarine maintenance moved from here to there ....cant find the government decision. (supposed to have happened in second week of Dec. 2019). Does anyone know the outcome? What are the implications for SA?

SKYLINER

[rev]

This is the most recent I could find.

Scott Morrison stays silent on moving SA’s Collins Class submarine maintenance jobs to WA
Claire Bickers, Jade Gailberger, Celeste Villani, The Advertiser
February 19, 2020 2:58pm
Subscriber only

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is staying silent about when he will make a decision on the future of a lucrative submarine contract, amid growing fears hundreds of South Australian shipyard jobs could shift to Western Australia.

Mr Morrison, visiting Adelaide on Wednesday, said he wouldn’t “rush” a decision on where full-cycle docking for the ageing Collins Class submarine fleet would be based.

“I am not one to rush these important decisions,” he told reporters at the opening of the Australian Space Agency at Lot Fourteen.

Mr Morrison added he wouldn’t outline any timetable for a decision, but said it would be made in the national interests.

It comes after a defence analyst said the decision had become “politically toxic”.

Mr Morrison described the defence industry capabilities in Adelaide as “fantastic”.

But he said one of the biggest challenges for SA would be finding enough workers to fill 2600 jobs in the pipeline.

“We are going to have to put the pedal to the floor to ensure there is training and skilling and getting people into those important defence industry jobs, which we are creating here in South Australia,” he said.

“If you are working in the shipbuilding industry, if you are working in defence, if you are working in the space industry in South Australia, you have a bright future.”

A decision on full-cycle docking was expected to be made last year but former senior Defence Department official Marcus Hellyer said it had become “politically toxic” for the Federal Government.

“If the decision was to stay in SA, they would just announce it, so I do suspect that the recommendation is to move,” the Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst said.

“I suspect they’re working on messaging or strategies to sell the move to South Australians.” MacTaggart Scott Australia director Peter Richings, an SA-based supplier, said companies needed an answer soon because it affected their decision-making.

“I don’t understand why a decision can’t be made,” he said. “What is more frustrating is just the lack of any timescale.”

Mr Richings pushed for a decision by Easter.

Mr Morrison’s National Security Committee of Cabinet will ultimately make the final decision after receiving a recommendation from Defence.

Powerful crossbench Senator Rex Patrick, who has put the Government on notice it will have a tougher time working with Centre Alliance if there is an unfavourable outcome for SA, said it “should be made as soon as possible”.

Splitting the work made no sense “other than to manage the politics,” Senator Patrick said. But he was concerned the split had become the Government’s preferred option.

Workers were “becoming more and more concerned about the delays,” Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union SA branch president Peter Bauer said.

“They want a decision … so they can get on with their lives,” he said.

Australian Industry & Defence Network SA president Gary Bettcher warned the delay would affect business confidence.

Premier Steven Marshall at the weekend said he wanted a “speedy decision” to remove some of the uncertainty for workers.

A decision to move the jobs would be a nightmare scenario for his Government.

Labor’s defence spokesman Richard Marles said Mr Morrison needed to make a call “sooner rather than later” and must “provide a full explanation to South Australians”.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds confirmed a decision had not yet been made.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sou ... 3197fd2ede

[1NEEDS2POST]

$10,000 emergency cash grants for small businesses impacted by COVID-19
Tens of thousands of South Australian small businesses and not-for-profits will be offered a one-off $10,000 emergency cash grant from the Marshall Liberal Government to further support them through the coronavirus crisis.

The major investment – funded from the State Government’s $650m Jobs Rescue Package – will assist an estimated 19,000 small businesses and not-for-profits that have suffered a significant loss of income or been forced to close as a result of necessary coronavirus-related restrictions, including eligible sporting and community organisations across the state from gyms, hairdressers and beauty and nail salons to restaurants, cafes and cellar doors, at a total cost of approximately $190m.

https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/news/medi ... y-covid-19

[Jaymz]

The unemployment figures for March have been released. Probably the last time we'll see the rate with a 5 or 6 in front of it for quite a while.....

South Australia retains unwanted mantle of unemployment capital as jobless figures worsen
South Australia has recorded the highest jump in unemployment in the nation. But a less volatile measure has the state sitting where it was a month before.

Matt Smith, Political Editor, The Advertiser

April 16, 2020 11:49am

South Australia’s unemployment rate again leads the nation, as we brace for further impacts from a coronavirus-sparked economic slowdown.

Nationally the 5.2 per cent unemployment rate was better than what Federal Treasury official expected with concerns it could raise to 5.5 per cent for the March quarter.

With the global and national economies predicted for very tough times in light of the coronavirus pandemic, SA recorded a 6.2 per cent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February.

The figures cover a period before the height of the coronavirus concerns, and predate state and federal stimulus packages.

Figures were taken before Prime Minster Scott Morrison announced a $130 billion Job Keeper program.

They also predate the strictest restrictions, announced by the Federal Government on March 23, that reduced pubs, clubs and restaurants to take away sparking huge line ups outside Centrelink offices across the nation including South Australia.

But the potential effects of the coronavirus were already being felt across the country.

A number of states had already recorded deaths, and high profile positive tests including Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Hollywood star Tom Hanks were widely publicised.

ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said today’s data shows some small early impact from COVID-19 on the Australian labour market in early March, but any impact from the major COVID-19 related actions will be evident in the April data.

“Given the expected unseasonal change in key labour market indicators in the current COVID-19 context, the ABS will increase the focus on seasonally adjusted over trend data estimates for April and subsequent months,” Mr Hockman said.

The latest figures released on Thursday morning showed the seasonally adjusted number of SA rose 0.4 per cent.

On the less volatile trend measure, SA’s rate has remained stable at 6.0 per cent.

NSW continues to lead the nation by a street, with 4.8 per cent seasonally-adjusted unemployment.

Second highest behind SA is Queensland on 5.7 per cent.

The seasonally adjusted participation rate increased by 0.5 points in South Australia.

On trend terms, 852,000 people are employed in SA, which marks a 3700 reduction in jobs from a record high in June last year.

The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 5.6 per cent when Premier Steven Marshall won a drought-breaking election in March 2018. It is now 0.6 per cent higher.

State Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said while today’s figures did not reflect the full impact of the pandemic there was “no doubt” state and federal stimulus measures would minimise the impacts of the pandemic on the economy.

“Small business is the backbone of the South Australian economy and is a huge employer and that’s why we will do everything in our power to support as many businesses as possible to get through to the other side, and in turn, preserve as many jobs as possible”.

Mr Pisoni said SA had seen 3500 people employed in March, seasonably-adjusted, 70 per cent of which were full time positions.

[rev]

Nationally they're talking about 10-15% over this virus.

When the first major 'lay offs' started with the closure of pubs and other venues, I think the figure for SA was around 70,000 who were out of work as a result.

Heard Treasurer Lucas on the radio today saying that the state has committed to a billion dollars in spending on this crisis so far, and it was money that is all being borrowed.
They're also saying that infrastructure spending will be needed to push through to the other side of this. We've heard that before over the years, that that sort of spending will grow the economy and push us through etc etc, but they're too slow in doing anything about it. South Road/north south corridor is a fine example.

[Norman]

They need to firstly assess what profession these unemployed people are, and then see what sort of measures the government should be putting on place. No use looking for engineers if the unemployed people are coming from a retail or hospitality background (unless they have the qualifications).