AuBJ – 4 September – Collins Foods, which operates KFC and Sizzler restaurants in Australia, has said current trading conditions are the most challenging they’ve ever been. The company says this has contributed to the fall in its share price from $2.50 a year ago, to $1.14 now. Collins Foods c... Read More

AuBJ – 4 September – Mining major Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) is delaying around AU$1.6 billion of expansion plans and cutting several hundred jobs in an effort to save money. Australia’s third-biggest iron ore producer claimed the cost-cutting measures were necessitated by falling iron ore p... Read More

AuBJ – 31 August – Electrical and homewares retailer Harvey Norman has reported a 32 per cent fall in full year profit up to 30 June. The retailer made a net profit of $172.5 million in fiscal 2012, compared with $252.3 million the previous year. Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey blamed the sl... Read More

AuBJ – 30 August – Andrew Forrest, founder and chairman of mining major Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), has bought almost $39 million of shares in the company over the last two days. The move has been seen as an attempt to improve confidence in FMG as the prices of both iron ore and its own shares... Read More

AuBJ – 29 August – Australian contractor Brookfield Multiplex has begun construction of the $190 million accommodation village at Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore project. Construction of the first stage of housing will begin once civil works are complete, with the aim of delivering 400 rooms... Read More

AuBJ – 28 August – Australia’s use of renewable energy has grown significantly, according to the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE). BREE’s 2012 Australian Energy Update said renewable energy use rose 21 per cent in 2010-11. Consumption of natural gas and oil both increased by s... Read More

AuBJ – Australia remains the world’s highest per-capita emitter of greenhouse gases, according to a Climate Commission report released this week. Greens leader Christine Milne said the report was a “shocking indictment of what Australia is doing not only to people now, but in the future”. Sh... Read More

AuBJ – 22 August – Mining major BHP Billiton has scrapped its AU$28.73 billion Olympic Dam expansion after its profits slumped by more than a third. Had the expansion gone ahead, the open-pit copper and uranium mine would have been one of the world’s largest. BHP chief executive Marius Klopper... Read More

AuBJ – 20 August – Australian homeowners put more solar panels on their roofs than anyone in the world last year, according to new data. The Clean Energy Regulator and International Energy Agency reported that about 392,000 new household solar systems were switched on in Australia last year. Man... Read More

AuBJ – 17 August – The Roy Hill iron ore mine took a step closer to becoming a reality with Roy Hill Holdings entering into negotiations with US lender, Export-Import Bank, to secure funding for the AU$9 billion project. Export-Import president Fred Hochberg said the bank planned to lend a furth... Read More

AuBJ – 16 August – The Australian resource sector still has some way to go before it reaches its peak, according to an expert. Paul Dalgleish, chief executive of RCR Tomlinson, disputes the view that the boom may be cooling. “If you do an analysis of the current projects that are under constru... Read More

AuBJ – 15 August – Australia’s biggest bank has recorded a record net profit of almost $7.1 billion, indicating an 11 per cent rise compared with the previous financial year. The result follows Commonwealth Bank (CBA) cutting staff numbers by three per cent within the 12 months to 30 June, to ... Read More

AuBJ – 14 August – Petrochemical company Shell has awarded Wood Group PSN (WGPSN), a provider of brownfield services to the oil and gas industry, an AU$10 million contract for work on the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project. The Prelude FLNG facility, off the coast of W... Read More

AuBJ – 13 August – Australian steelmaker BlueScope has formed an AU$1.36 billion joint venture with Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) focusing on coated steel products. Shares in BlueScope increased by more than 50 per cent after the 50:50 joint venture, to be called NS BlueScope Coated P... Read More

AuBJ – 10 August – More than half of Australian companies that sell overseas expect export orders to increase this year, according to a survey. In response to the carbon tax, most respondents said they were raising prices rather than reducing their carbon footprint. The DHL Export Barometer surv... Read More

AuBJ – 9 August – Mining major Rio Tinto’s first-half underlying profit has fallen 34 per cent to AU$4.95 billion. Blame for the drop was attributed to weaker demand from China, lower commodity prices, increased operating costs and decreased production output. The world’s second largest iron... Read More