A message from Jens Goennemann

I have just returned from another trip to Western Australia feeling inspired by what I saw and by what remains possible for Australian manufacturing.

I was fortunate to visit iron giant Fortescue during the trip, where I saw the company launch the first two electric locomotives of what is hoped to eventually become a fleet.

Fortescue is looking very actively at different pathways for refining iron ore drawing on some world-leading research.

As I wrote last time around, I feel warmly about the potential for an Australia-EU FTA to lead to downstream Australian processing of iron ore into green iron, and for that to find its way to steelmakers in Germany, the country of my birth. I see this as a much more realistic and economically viable opportunity than shipping hydrogen and unprocessed iron ore around the globe.

To continue the Australian-German thread a little further, I was also blessed to visit the Bassendean, WA headquarters of Hofmann Engineering during the trip.

The family-owned company began in 1969 with two German brothers identifying a need for gear making and getting to work in their backyard.

Now in its second and third generation, the company employs about 500 people across five Australian sites and has, according to current boss Erich Hofmann, “never seen a bad year”.

Hofmann Engineering has clients in mining, transport, and defence, and sees increased potential in clean technology.

Its culture has been described as “solution-seeking”, adept at minimising risk through diversification and sound engineering, with every employee “in the business of innovation”.

I got to see a tiny bit of that innovation up close at one of the most amazing Australian manufacturing facilities I have visited.

Among other things, I saw a shining example of how a company can integrate defence and non-defence work at the same workbench using smart protocols for each different type of customer.

A little while ago the Western Australian Government trusted AMGC to help them design and deliver the Wind Energy Manufacturing Co-Investment Program. The Agreement was signed May 2024, program launched in that December, and the first co-investment announced July 2025.

A year after the first co-investment was announced, the $8 million pool of funds for co-investment and advice supporting Market Entry and Market Growth projects is nearing full allocation and

We look forward to the completion of projects and the lasting legacy of these ambitious programs, and to seeing the State government’s next move to diversify its impressive SME base, building from its strength in extractive industries into opportunities beyond them.

AMGC is now looking at this next wave of Western Australian companies and hopefully building on a pipeline of opportunities as the State Government courts the value-adding potential of the global renewable energy industry.

Being successful in manufacturing is not easy. But it is possible.