A new paper has valued the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector at more than $71 billion, with director of Industry Policy at the Minerals Council of Australia Sid Marris stating that Australia’s resources boom has “sparked a quiet revolution”.
“With sales exceeding $71 billion in 2012 and total employment estimated at around 265,000 people, the rise of the METS sector has multiplied and diversified the benefits Australia derives from its natural resource endowment,” said Professor Don Scott-Kemmis, an innovation management and policy consultant and adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney.
A public policy monograph by Professor Scott-Kemmis shows the rise of Australia’s METS sector has been what Marris notes is an “untold success story” from the wider mining boom.
“Export revenues from the sector substantially exceed those of the wine industry and, on some measures, the automotive industry,” Professor Scott-Kemmis said.
The growth of a homegrown METS sector has helped to spread the benefits of the mining boom across Australia, Marris writes, particularly to the domestic manufacturing industry.
A number of Australia’s “thriving” METS companies are based in the larger cities and towns, “creating thousands of jobs in manufacturing and service industries”.
Queensland’s mining projects present opportunities for apprenticeships in Surat Basin, and other places such as Bowen Basin and the Galilee Basin.
