Industry and Synergies

Industrial Suburbs

Each of the industrial suburbs making up the WTC are quite different with some being very specialised. There are four primary areas.

The Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA)

This is the oldest part of the WTC, and was often referred to as “The Strip”. This area represents the old Kwinana Industrial Area, or heavy industry core. Its first entrant was the BP Kwinana oil refinery in 1955. It has been the home of the traditional heavy industries, including petroleum and minerals refineries, power stations, chemical plants, cement works and a range of supporting industries. It is a busy industrial deep-water bulk port and is approaching land availability capacity.

Extending from the south extremity of the KIA to its northern extremity, some 8kms, is a belt of secondary industries. These service the fabrication, construction, engineering and maintenance requirements of their heavy industry neighbours, and because land availability is approaching capacity, KIC is pressing for new heavy industrial land parcels to be developed and added to the industrial core.

Rockingham Industry Zone (RIZ)

On the fringes of the heavy industrial core is the RIZ. This is a newly developing heavy and light industrial area designed as an overflow to the KIA and for a belt of light industry through to commercial development as it gets closer to residential development. It provides space for many transport, storage and laydown areas as well as new industrial land for supporting and heavy industry.

Australian Marine Complex (AMC)

In the northern part of the WTC is the AMC, which is a specialist area for shipbuilding, marine engineering, manufacturing, fabrication, defence services, technology and general engineering.

The area alongside the wharves also serves as a marshalling area for mining resource, oil & gas, marine, logistics and defence projects.

Latitude 32

To the east, the Latitude 32 Industry Zone.

This very large (1,400+ ha) area is still largely undeveloped for industry, although a general industry precinct (Flinders) is becoming built out. The area is awaiting its planning direction which will come once the locational decision for the new port in Kwinana is made by the State government in Q1 2020.

Covering 1,400ha, when fully developed this major industrial development zone will be amongst the largest in Australia and will be constructed to meet short, medium and long-term demand for industrial land in Perth.

Industry sees Latitude 32 as the area into which the heavy industrial core can expand in to. Once the decision on the port is made, it is expected there will be substantial pressure to zone the western profile of Latitude 32 for this purpose, with the remainder set aside for the logistics industries supporting the new port in Kwinana.

The Benefits of Clusters

An ‘industrial cluster’ occurs where similarly categorised companies are located in close proximity, and the Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA) is an excellent example of one such cluster.

The basic principle underpinning clusters is this: Companies in clusters are more competitive than similar companies located outside of clusters.

The improved competitiveness comes from being co-located with other businesses, so there is a

• higher likelihood of an efficient, integrated freight transport system servicing the area
• larger number of specialised, skilled and experienced workers who will move within the cluster
• shorter distance from process input supplies, possibly even able to be piped, to user
• higher likelihood that by-products will be able to be used as an input into by nearby industry processes, increasing the re-use and recycling of materials
• increased interest from the secondary (supporting engineering and fabrication) industry sector to locate near the heavy industry cluster thus further reducing the costs for all parties
• an attraction to move to the cluster to take advantage of the synergies, and to add to them
• greater economic impact which can induce greater governmental attention
• greater interest in investment which adds to all of the above.
• Economic competitiveness is the bottom

The KIA is a world class example of the benefits of industrial-scale clustering.  It is literally the world’s best practice example of industrial symbiosis at work, with well over 150 product, by-product and utility exchanges occurring on commercial terms.

Clusters can be facilitated buy governments through the provision of the basic infrastructure such as appropriately zoned and buffered land, efficient and scalable transport and pipeline corridors, utility provision designed to accommodate growth, etc.  Governments can also ensure that their governance over the cluster is of high quality.

• development planning processes are efficient and as sensible as possible
• regulation of industry is sensible, consistent and transparent
• decisions are made promptly
• cluster buffer zones are well protected from the encroachment pressures of influential residential property developers
• long-term strategic planning ensures the integrity of the cluster for the long term.