Mark Beyer

Million dollar salary packages are becoming increasingly common in Western Australia, WA Business News's fourth annual remuneration survey has found.

Subiaco company Natural Fuel has launched Australia's biggest biofuels float at a time when other companies in the sector have either scrapped capital raising plans or suffered a hammering by investors.

The past year has been a tough period for some of Western Australia's best-known food manufacturers.

The founder of transportable housing manufacturer Blue Ridge, Alan Mackenzie, is planning rapid expansion of the business after buying it back from short-lived owner Cool or Cosy.

Rio Tinto has used the official opening of its HImselt pig iron plant at Kwinana to predict that five commercial HIsmelt plants could be in operation within the next decade.

Iconic smallgoods producer D'Orsogna typifies the challenges facing food manufacturers in WA, which are refining their strategies in response to an increasingly competitive market.

Mt Gibson Iron's hostile takeover offer for Aztec Resources has taken a surprise turn with Cambrian Mining selling its 19.9 per cent Mt Gibson stake to a large Russian iron ore and steel producer.

The Bunbury Port Authority has negotiated an agreement with woodchip exporter Hansol PI that is designed to allow both woodchips and coal exports to proceed throught the port.

Hong Kong investor Shanghai Merchants Holdings has declared Mt Gibson Iron's hostile takeover offer for Aztec Resources a failure at current levels and has called on the two companies to negotiate an acceptable merger agreement.

Kwinana industrial services company Ausclad Group has lifted its order book to $184 million after winning three new contracts in the iron ore, energy and nickel sectors.

Western Australia's resources and infrastructure boom has driven a near 50 per cent increase in the number of engineering jobs in the state in the past two years, according to data compiled for WA Business News' Book of Lists.

The University of Western Australia has amended its legal claim against former staff member Dr Bruce Gray and the company he founded, Sirtex Medical Ltd, over ownership of various intellectual property.

Car dealer John Hughes turned 70 last December, but instead of slowing down and planning for retirement, he has purchased a new dealership.

Former AMP Financial Services state manager Mike Jones has built a substantial independent financial services group in Western Australia under the banner of his new business, Prosperity Partners.

The University of Western Australia has amended its legal claim against former staff member Dr Bruce Gray and the company he founded, Sirtex Medical Ltd, over ownership of various intellectual property.

Smallgoods manufacturer D'Orsogna Ltd has instituted a corporate restructuring that could result in the sale of shares in the family-owned business, and potentially the entire business, following a sharp fall in profit.

Manufacturing is widely perceived to be an industry in terminal decline, so it's rather surprising that the Australian Bureau of Statistics found it to be one of Western Australia's biggest industry sectors, supporting more than 100,000 jobs.

If there is one thing Palandri Ltd chief executive Darrel Jarvis has in abundance, it is unbounded optimism about the future of his Margaret River wine business.

When nickel producer Minara Resources decided last year to pursue the development of a $25 million heap leach demonstration plant, it ran into an unexpected problem.

Property and business services has been the fastest growing industry sector in Western Australia over the past 20 years, Australian Bureau of Statistics data has found.

Big retailers, big miners and big contractors sit at the top of WA Business News' second annual survey to find the state's largest employers.

Strong growth in commodity prices, combined with solid production levels, has created a new and welcome problem for an increasing number of mid-cap mining companies in Western Australia: how to spend their rapidly expanding cash reserves.

An 8 per cent fall in university applications in Western Australia for 2006 entry had an immediate impact on staff numbers at Edith Cowan University.

Rick Stowe's Griffin Coal Mining Company is planning to borrow around $530 million through a note issue to refinance group debt and provide funding for its current expansion projects.

Margaret River wine producer Palandri Ltd has again surprised the market by reporting an unexpectedly high profit and announcing plans to delist from London's Alternative Investment Market and list on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Allens Arthur Robinson and Deacons have achieved the largest and most consistent growth among Perth's major law firms over the past five years, according to the WA Business News Book of Lists.

With help from Western Australian companies such as Western Areas, Equinox Minerals and Moly Mines, the Toronto Stock Exchange accounted for just over half of global equity capital raisings for the mining industry in the first half of this year.

Perth-based companies CustomVis plc and DDD Group plc, which listed on London's Alternative Investment Market to fund development of new technology, have racked up extra losses in the past year but believe their prospects improved in recent months.

Engineering services company WorleyParsons has moved to 100 per cent ownership of its Australian power and water joint venture Burns & Roe Worley Pty Ltd

While most businesses in Western Australia would leap at the chance to get government help, most, unfortunately, end up with nothing; so how did 12 local companies qualify this year for grants worth $25 million?

Engineering services company WorleyParsons has moved to 100 per cent ownership of its Australian power and water joint venture Burns & Roe Worley Pty Ltd.

Perth companies Jupiter Energy and Australian Ethanol have been forced to revise their capital raising plans after a downturn in investor support for the biofuels sector.