Twiggy' Forrest's $160m China deal to bring lifesaving supplies to Australia

lovetravellingoz

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Well well done Twiggy, and the Chinese too (who have been the subject of much angst from many of late).


Billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest's Minderoo Foundation has put $160 million towards a partnership with Fortescue Metals Group and the Chinese government to bring crucial life-saving medical supplies and equipment to Western Australia, and ramp up COVID-19 testing across the state.
......

This will include more than one million N95 equivalent face masks, 400,000 surgical masks, 2.3 million medical-grade gloves, 100,000 nasal swabs, 200,000 medical coveralls, 10,000 medical goggles, 5000 touch-less thermometers and over 33 intensive care unit-grade ventilators.

Dr Forrest, who is chairman of Minderoo and former CEO of Fortescue, said the group's relationship with China allowed them to get a seat at the table in the face of unprecedented international demand for protective and medical equipment.

"Unprecedented times cannot be met with a precedented response," Dr Forrest said.
He thanked China's Australian ambassador Cheng Jingye and the Chinese people for their friendship to the people of Australia.





And


Minderoo is also working with Chinese genomics company BGI Group to dramatically increase WA's coronavirus testing capacity.
It is hoped the plan would allow authorities to test up to 10,000 people per day.

"This is being prepared and will be implemented shortly," Mr Forrest said.
He said his procurement team had been toiling through 20 hour days amid immense competition from other nations for the supplies.
 
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Well there is this as a counter point.


Anyone read Chris Ullman's piece in the smh today?


Very sensible, but alas, imo, nothing will change.
 
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Well there is this as a counter point.



Well you do in some of the other threads have people buying facemask at inflated prices and unknown quality through eBay and so they have to be getting into the country somehow...

Fakes have always abounded on eBay though.
 
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Very sensible, but alas, imo, nothing will change.

Whilst I don't see wholesale re-establishment of manufacturing in Australia, the private sector is on its way to diversifying manufacturing and supply beyond China. Too much risk to have all the eggs in one basket.
 
Whilst I don't see wholesale re-establishment of manufacturing in Australia, the private sector is on its way to diversifying manufacturing and supply beyond China. Too much risk to have all the eggs in one basket.


Indeed.

And Government supply contracts will increase their Australian content requirements and I foresee that the government will come up with a list of "essential" products where either all, or a set %, must be manufactured in Australia.
 
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Well there is this as a counter point.


Anyone read Chris Ullman's piece in the smh today?


Very sensible, but alas, imo, nothing will change.

Not all manufacturing is dead in Australia. My partner manufactures in Melbourne, among other things, the specialised castors for hospital beds and hospital bed movers (she's the only hospital bed castor manufacturer in Australia). She's ramping up the castor production for a hospital bed manufacturer in NSW and also for their US parent company. Raw material supply and freight is a problem though. She had a freight quote this week for a steel shipment that was $28,000, almost five times the usual freight costs. Frankly the Oz airlines and the federal government need to step up with essential freight movement. Her US customer is having to pay USD$24,000 a day to freight the castors. With those air freight costs you can be assured the US company is trying to source elsewhere...
 
Our hospitals usual supplier (Australian produced) of surgical masks has proudly announced they have stock again. At the bargain price of $5 each PLUS $3 postage for each mask.

Note: They are usually 18c each. Pretty sure no postage either.

No gouging at all there.
 
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