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Metso acquires WEARX

Posted on 02/11/2017 by faccadmin in News

Metso acquires WEARX to strengthen its position in mining services in Australia

Metso Corporation’s press release in November 1, 2017 at 10:30 a.m. EEST

Metso has today closed the acquisition of an Australia-based wear lining solutions provider WEARX. The company’s sales in the fiscal year 2017 that ended on June 30 were AUD 35 million (EUR 23 million) and it has approx. 140 employees. WEARX has their headquarters in Newcastle, with operations also in Ballina, Orange and Perth.

“The acquisition is a good strategic fit for Metso, supporting our profitable growth strategy,” says Nico Delvaux, President and CEO of Metso. “Joining forces with WEARX gives us the opportunity to strengthen our position in the wear lining business and extends our offering for our Australian customers. We are very happy to welcome the WEARX team into Metso,” he continues.

About WEARX

WEARX is a wear solutions provider, addressing the needs of major mining customers by implementing wear technologies to deliver wear protection solutions. The company’s offering includes wear liners, rubber and ceramic lining, skirting, and bulk material handling equipment. The services portfolio includes design, engineering, site services and project management. Further details can be found on the company’s website at wearx.com.

Metso is a world leading industrial company serving the mining, aggregates, recycling, oil, gas, pulp, paper and process industries. We help our customers improve their operational efficiency, reduce risks and increase profitability by using our unique knowledge, experienced people and innovative solutions to build new, sustainable ways of growing together.

Our products range from mining and aggregates processing equipment and systems to industrial valves and controls. Our customers are supported by a broad scope of services and a global network of over 80 service centers and about 6,000 services professionals. Metso has an uncompromising attitude towards safety.

Metso is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, Finland, and had sales of about EUR 2.6 billion in 2016. Metso employs over 11,000 persons in more than 50 countries. Expect results.

Source: Metso Press Release 1 November 2017

Australia, Ballina, Finland, Metso, Newcastle, Orange, Perth, WEARX Read More

FACC Annual General Meeting

Posted on 22/09/2015 by faccadmin in News

The 2015 Annual General Meeting of the Finland Australia Chamber of Commerce, Inc. is being held on Thursday, 22 October 2015.

The meeting will be held at TressCox Lawyers, Level 16, MLC Centre, 19 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000.  The meeting will commence at 5:30pm sharp, and run for approximately 30 minutes.  Member drinks will follow.

The Notice of Annual General Meeting and proxy form can be downloaded by clicking on the links below:

Notice of Annual General Meeting
Proxy Form

If you are unable to attend, then please ensure that you complete a proxy and send it in.  You can nominate any member as your proxy or, if you prefer, the Chairman.
AGM, Annual General Meeting, Australia, Chamber of Commerce, FACC, Finland, Sydney Read More

Onerva Utriainen Photographic Exhibition

Posted on 30/05/2015 by faccadmin in News

Works by one of our Melbourne based members, ONERVA UTRIAINEN, are featured in a ‘mini art fair’ style exhibition at the ANITA TRAVERSO GALLERY, 7 Albert Street, Richmond VIC 3121.

The exhibition, AT_SALON2 : SEASON 2 runs until 19 July 2015 and all of our members and friends in Melbourne are encouraged to get along to it.  The ANITA TRAVERSO GALLERY is open Wednesday through Saturday 11am to 5pm, and by appointment.

ONERVA UTRIAINEN Pastoral Passages #30

ONERVA UTRIAINEN Pastoral Passages #30

Born in Finland, ONERVA UTRIAINEN trained in Italy and has been exhibiting professionally since 1993 in Europe and more recently in Australia. Her work is held in numerous private and corporate collections nationally and abroad, and is on the board of many art foundations in her homeland.

Anita Traverso, Australia, Finland, Melbourne, Onerva, Photographic, Photography, Utriainen Read More

The simple reasons behind Finland’s educational success

Posted on 09/02/2015 by faccadmin in News

Finland performs well on international rankings and its success reflects the value placed on teaching, the commitment to egalitarian public schools and infrastructure investment.

Commitment: a recent survey found 75 per cent of Finnish people viewed the formation of the free, compulsory comprehensive school as the most important event in the nation's history.

Commitment: a recent survey found 75 per cent of Finnish people viewed the formation of the free, compulsory comprehensive school as the most important event in the nation’s history.

Finland’s remarkable education success is now reasonably well-known, and the reasons behind it sound surprisingly simple.

These include: valuing of – and rigorous entry requirements for – the teaching profession; comprehensive and egalitarian public funding; and teaching encouragingly for the purpose that students learn, rather than punitively for the purpose that they meet the requirements of high-stakes external tests.

Another important reason is that Finnish schools invest so substantially in ‘special needs’ education that it does not have the negative stigma there which is often associated with such education elsewhere.

Some further explanations emerged in my interviews last year, in both Australia and Finland, with Mr Ari Pokka, a leading Finnish school principal who is now president of the International Confederation of Principals (ICP), which will hold its world convention in Helsinki in August.

Mr Pokka emphasises that Finnish schools are very well-designed, with excellent, well-maintained facilities, which makes them stimulating and rewarding places in which to work.

Finnish schools may not have the heights of luxury available in some of the most wealthy, fee-charging private schools in Australia but most teachers in Finnish schools are working in better – including better-maintained – facilities than are most Australian school teachers.

Mr Pokka says that ‘normally in Finland, if you make a new school or renew an older school, the teachers and principals have a lot of say in what the school will look like, what the equipment is, what the architecture style is’.

He adds that the teachers also work with the people who actually construct the buildings. For example, in current plans for a new building at his own school (Cygnaeus Upper Secondary, in the central Finnish city of Jyväskylä), he and his colleagues are arranging for it to be able to practically demonstrate the use of solar power during chemistry lessons.

Mr Pokka emphasises that “in Finnish schools, not only the school cultures are different because of the autonomy of the school but also…the school buildings including the classrooms reflect how much teachers have influenced the things inside”. “The pedagogical approach, the way you work with the kids, is also [about] how you plan your environment and use it in your learning and teaching,” he says.

Another important aspect of Finland’s success is that students who are right at the top, who teachers feel might not be being extended adequately, benefit from the emphasis on special education support which the Finnish schools provide, in addition to the benefits gained by those who may be struggling.

It was also startling to have identified and translated to me, by a Special Government Adviser in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, the fact that a recent historical study has found that 75 per cent of Finnish people view the formation of the free, compulsory comprehensive school as the most important event in the nation’s history.

They rate it as more important than their crucial Winter War of 1939–1940 against the Soviet Union, more important than the winning of universal suffrage, more important than the welfare state, and more important than Finland’s Civil War of 1918. That the creation of the nine-year public institution which provides basic education to all – in the local areas in which they live – is viewed in such an exalted way, is a striking indication of how deeply the Finns appreciate and value learning.

Finland’s approach of making vocational opportunities available in upper secondary schools in an equitable way is also central to its educational success. When I went into the teaching area of a Finnish vocational upper secondary school last year, I saw many full motor vehicles on the floor of a secondary classroom premises.

There, each year, approximately 200 students in years 10, 11 and 12, who choose to focus on Vehicle Technology, become licensed motor mechanics as part of gaining their vocational upper secondary school qualification. During year 10, they acquire basic skills in servicing cars, including oil changes. In year 11 they learn to repair both passenger vehicles and heavy-duty trucks, including checking brakes and undertaking wheel alignments. In year 12 they focus on electronics.

One of the projects on which the students had worked was the creation of a fully functioning racing car from a stripped-down old vehicle. The students, with their teachers, also run an actual automotive repair shop from the school, used by paying local customers, as part of developing their technical and business skills. The services which the automotive repair shop offer include the changing over of an entire car motor.

Meanwhile, as part of studying Logistics, these students learn to safely operate fork-lifts to transport vehicle wheels into warehouse storage. The vocational upper secondary qualification emphasises on-the-job learning and entrepreneurship studies. It also has a substantial general studies component including: languages, mathematics, physics and chemistry, health education, art and culture.

The connections maintained between both technical and general education streams, even while students develop their knowledge in one, are crucial for understanding Finnish schools’ successes, and for learning effectively from them. The new Victorian Government – given its plans to set up some new technical learning centres for secondary students to gain practical skills – should closely follow Finland’s approach to the successful provision of vocational education.

This article is reproduced with the permission of the author, Dr Andrew Scott. Dr Scott is Associate Professor in Politics and Policy at Deakin University. This is an edited extract from his new book, Northern Lights: The Positive Policy Example of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway (Monash University Publishing).

Australia, Education, Finland Read More

Luxury hotel in Perth opts for Kone lifts

Posted on 25/11/2014 by faccadmin in News

Kone has announced a raft of Australian orders in recent months

Kone has announced a raft of Australian orders in recent months

Following hard on the heels of substantial orders in Melbourne and Sydney, Finland’s Kone has announced it will supply 18 elevators and escalators to a luxury hotel development in Perth, western Australia.

The six-star Crown Towers Perth, set for completion in 2016, will be a 22-floor hotel offering 500 guest rooms.

It will include a resort pool, restaurants, bars, a grand ballroom, convention centre, day spa and private gaming salons with riverfront views.

In keeping with the hotel’s high-end design, the elevator car interiors will be completed with a customised finish.

Earlier this month, Kone announced it would supply Collins Square in Melbourne, one of the country’s largest residential and commercial spaces, with 25 elevators and escalators.

That follows an order for high-rise apartments in Sydney in September.

www.kone.com

News courtesy of Good News! from Finland / Finnfacts.

Australia, Crown Towers, Elevators, Finland, Kone, Perth Read More

Finnish-Australian partnership aims to put health data to good use

Posted on 11/11/2014 by faccadmin in News
Centre for Health and Technology, University of Oulu

CENTRE FOR HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF OULU

Researchers from the Finnish initiative Digital Health Revolution have joined forces with Flinders University in South Australia. The goal is to find out how individuals could make use of their personal health data being collected in various registers in order to promote their health and well-being.

Together with Flinders University researchers we are developing mobile applications and online services which help consumers gain a better understanding of their own health information, for example by means of visualisations, says Miikka Ermes, a senior scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, one of the partners in the DHR project.

According to Flinders University Associate Professor Niranjan Bidargaddi, Australia carried out major investments in a national personal health record system, which allows individuals to control and make use of their health data.

Health data is typically given in a format that is meant to be read and interpreted by experienced health care professionals. At Flinders we are developing applications which present complex health information to individuals in a way that is not only easier to decipher but also potentially helps them adopt a healthier way of life and improve their well-being, Bidargaddi says.

http://www.oulu.fi/yliopisto/

News courtesy of Finnfacts / Good News! from Finland

Adelaide, Australia, Finland, Flinders University, Health, South Australia, University of Oulu Read More

FACC Executive Committee nominations now sought

Posted on 18/09/2014 by faccadmin in News

The Annual General Meeting of the Chamber will be held in Sydney on Thursday, 30 October 2014.

In accordance with the Chamber’s governing rules, all existing members of the executive committee will retire from office at the AGM. Elections will then be held to appoint up to 10 members to the executive committee. Those people retiring will be eligible for re-election.

We are now seeking nominations from eligible persons for appointment to the executive committee. Nominations must be made using the approved form that you can download here. Each nomination must be signed by the nominating members (two are required) and the nominee. Only members, or representatives of corporate members, can be nominated.

The executive committee is the Chamber’s equivalent of a board of directors. The executive committee meets ten times a year and has a very important role in shaping the future of the Chamber nationally.

If fewer than 10 people are nominated, they will be automatically appointed to the executive committee. If there are more than 10 nominees, an election will be held at the AGM.

Please submit your nominations in the approved form as soon as possible and by no later than 5:30pm on Thursday, 23 October 2014.

Geoff Charnock
Honorary Secretary
Finland Australia Chamber of Commerce, Inc.

2014, AGM, Australia, FACC, Finland, Sydney Read More

Cargotec’s Kalmar wins significant order for Melbourne’s new automated container terminal

Posted on 03/09/2014 by faccadmin in News

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has won a significant contract to deliver container handling equipment and related automation technology worth of more than EUR 40 million to Port of Melbourne’s new container terminal, operated by Victoria International Container Terminal Ltd (VICTL). The order includes 12 automated stacking cranes and 11 automated shuttle carriers and they will be delivered during 2016.

Kalmar’s partnership with VICTL, a consortium comprised of Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Incorporated (ICTSI) and Australia’s Anglo Ports, marks a milestone in Australia’s port infrastructure development. Australia has shown the way in port automation and Kalmar has played a key role in introducing innovative automation solutions to the country’s leading ports.

The new terminal at Melbourne’s Webb Dock will introduce fully automated operations from gate to quayside and deliver an estimated capacity of 350,000 TEU in its first phase. When fully developed, the 35.4 hectare terminal will be able to handle up to 1.4 million TEU annually. Construction of the terminal superstructure and facilities is planned to commence in late 2014.

Christian R. Gonzalez, ICTSI head of the Asia-Pacific region said: “This is a premier project for ICTSI in Australia and the partnership with Kalmar allows us to introduce cutting edge, best-proven automated container handling equipment and technologies to Webb Dock. Kalmar’s strong track record in delivering automated terminal solutions in Australia as well as in other parts of the world will help us to put Melbourne amongst the leading ports of the world.”

Olli Isotalo, President of Kalmar, said: “We are extremely pleased to have been selected as the main partner in this landmark project. Our proven solutions and experience in port automation will not only ensure superior operating efficiency but also minimal environmental impact in this highly populated area. We are committed to delivering VICTL a high-performing system with best of breed automated port equipment.”

www.cargotec.com

Cargotec shapes the cargo handling industry for the benefit of its customers and shareholders. Cargotec’s business areas MacGregor, Kalmar and Hiab are recognised leaders in cargo and load handling solutions around the world. Their global network is positioned close to customers and offers extensive services that ensure a continuous, reliable and sustainable performance according to customers’ needs. Cargotec’s sales totalled approximately EUR 3.2 billion and it employs approximately 11,000 people. Cargotec’s class B shares are quoted on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki under symbol CGCBV. www.cargotec.com

Australia, Cargotec, Finland, Kalmar, Melbourne, Port of Melbourne Read More

Lappset signs up as AILA Principal Corporate Partner

Posted on 14/08/2014 by faccadmin in News

Lappset Australia has signed a major, multi-faceted nationwide partnership agreement with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA). The agreement covers the play and exercise equipment sectors.

“We are very excited about the year ahead and look forward to learning from landscape architects and contributing to the designs of new, attractive and innovative outdoor spaces”, said Harri Makela, Managing Director of Lappset Australia.

Lappset Australia will also be providing, among other things, technical resource services to the AILA membership. For more information on the partnership, you can contact Lappset Australia or your local Lappset consultant.

www.lappset.com.au

Lappset Westfield West Lakes

Westfield West Lakes, Adelaide custom play space continues to attract huge numbers of children.

AILA, Australia, Finland, Lappset, Westfield Read More

Outotec to provide smelting technology for Nystar’s Port Pirie redevelopment in South Australia

Posted on 25/06/2014 by faccadmin in News

Outotec has agreed with Nyrstar, a global integrated mining and metals company, to provide Outotec® Ausmelt technology to the Port Pirie redevelopment in South Australia. Outotec will provide a technology licence, engineering, proprietary equipment and advisory services for the redevelopment of Nyrstar Port Pirie into an advanced metals recovery and refining facility. The order has been booked in Outotec’s 2014 second quarter order intake with the contract value remaining confidential.

Nystar's Port Pirie Facility

Nystar’s Port Pirie Facility in South Australia

Nyrstar’s Port Pirie smelter has been in continuous operation since 1889, with many of the core production assets having been in service for up to 60 years. While considered the best practice at the time, these assets are no longer capable of meeting the increasingly stringent environmental and operational standards expected of a modern base metals facility. Outotec® Ausmelt technology will be used to upgrade the facility to an advanced poly-metallic processing and recovery facility capable of processing a wide range of high value, high margin raw materials with improved environmental footprint and reduced airborne metal and dust emissions. Specifically Outotec technology will replace the outdated sinter plant with a state-of-the-art oxygen enriched bath smelting furnace.

The redeveloped facility will produce the current range of metals including lead, zinc oxide, gold, silver, and copper. However, the application of Outotec’s high temperature top submerged lance (TSL) bath smelting technology will allow a wider range of raw materials to be processed. The increased furnace flexibility will allow Nyrstar Port Pirie to process a wider range of high value and high margin concentrates and residues from Nyrstar’s existing smelters.

“We are very pleased that Nyrstar has chosen Outotec’s sustainable smelting technology for their redevelopment project. It demonstrates Nyrstar’s commitment to operating a global environmentally sustainable integrated metals business”, says Robin Lindahl, head of Outotec’s Metals, Energy & Water business area.

www.outotec.com

Australia, Finland, Nystar, Outotec, Port Pirie, South Australia Read More
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