The Federal Budget’s inclusion of the new Advanced Manufacturing Fund of $100 million to support the Australian manufacturing industry has the thumbs up from the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA).
Treasurer Scott Morrison says the new fund will include money to help businesses upgrade their processes and equipment. It will also provide valuable support for research projects in advanced manufacturing. This will include the establishment of Innovation Labs to help businesses develop new products for global markets.
These new Federal Government funding initiatives have the potential to considerably increase Australia’s manufacturing range to meet the demands of the ever growing and technologically advanced global automotive aftermarket industry, AAAA executive director Stuart Charity says.
“We are very excited that the Federal Government is interested in our concept of establishing Innovation Labs in Australia,” he says.
“The AAAA first proposed the initiative of creating an Automotive Innovation Lab to both the Federal and State Governments back in 2014. We gained the support of 25 automotive component manufacturers to fund a feasibility study, the results of which will outline the strongest possible case for some of this new funding to be directed to the establishment of the Australian Automotive Innovation Lab.”
This sector of Australian auto component manufacturing is growing year on year, the AAAA says. It has 260 member companies manufacturing world class products locally with 160 of these companies exporting their premium quality products to markets all over the world.
Australia’s innovative and globally competitive automotive component manufacturers and exporters will remain long after the car manufacturing industry departs our shores, the AAAA says.
Charity is confident that with the support of an Innovation Lab for Australian automotive industry manufacturers, enormous growth potential will exist for AAAA member companies.
“It is a concept that can significantly reduce product design timelines and bring enormous benefits to local automotive component manufacturers who are currently sending people overseas to use such facilities.”
Charity says the AAAA is best positioned to oversee the establishment, operation and success of the Automotive Innovation Lab, particularly as it represents more than 2250 member companies.
Automotive aftermarket manufacturing represents 36% of all automotive manufacturing in Australia, equating to a $5.2 billion injection to the Australian economy per annum.
The automotive aftermarket manufacturing sector alone employs 21,000 people directly and exports $800 million annually of product from 160 Australian manufacturers.
After the completion of the feasibility study in June, the AAAA will formally submit a tender to the Federal Government for the Australian Automotive Innovation Lab to become a recipient of one of the new Advanced Manufacturing Fund’s Innovation Lab grants.
