Hitch a ride on Western Australia’s Export Success
Responsible for 41.5 percent of Australian trade in dollar value during the last financial year, Western Australia is the country’s export powerhouse.
While the eastern states are developing manufactured products, services and smart technologies, WA presents a macro export picture of resource commodities and primary produce, from iron ore, coal, oil and gas to wheat, meat and seafood.
“It has often been said that Australia, and that includes WA, is the most efficient miner and farmer in the world,” says Ian Whitaker, Senior Trade Adviser, International. Trade Centre, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia, “and the reason for that is our mining and farming are capital and technology intensive industries, much more than in other countries, so we are able to produce a tonne of iron ore or wheat more cost effectively than most of our competitors.”
This efficiency enables WA to supply 22 percent of the world’s iron ore and 23 percent of its aluminium exports. Key markets traditionally include Korea, Japan and recently China and India, as well as the European Union, United Kingdom and Russia. Whitaker is quick to point out, though, that Perth today is not just the mining and resources capital of Australia, “it’s increasingly a global hub or centre”.
He says around 100 iron ore companies with head offices in Perth are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, most with operations in Western Australia but a growing number operating in Africa, Latin America or Central Asia. “There are numerous other commodities where operations around the world are being driven from an office in Perth. It’s a trend.”
But the resources and primary industry sectors, while dominant in world terms, don’t account for all the state’s trade prowess. Western Australia also exports sophisticated manufactured goods, Whitaker says. “At the top of the list would have to be ships.” He cites Austal Ships, a global supplier of multi-hulled aluminium ships to Europe, Asia and the United States, which exports 90 percent of what it produces, a typical profile for a WA organisation. He estimates that up to 300 local companies supply raw materials, componentry and sub-assemblies to Austal.
Other supplier companies provide technology, software, planning and processing for emerging areas such as magnetite mining, renewable energy and biotechnologies, and the provision of skilled services.
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