GEA scoops Euro33m order in Australia

Milton Keynes, UK – GEA Process Engineering has received an order for the delivery of a production facility for milk powder to Tasmania, Australia. The order has an overall value of about Euro33 million and the plant is due to start up within the next seven months.

To be built on the site of a closed sawmill outside the Tasmanian town of Smithton, Australia, the Tasmanian Dairy Products Co. Ltd facility will produce 6,000 kilos of milk powder per hour for 21½ hours per day. Annually, the facility will produce 33,000 tonnes of milk powder annually and use about 250 million litres of milk in the process.

“To build and deliver a turnkey factory for milk powder production is one of [our] specialities. A major part of our milk drying technology is Danish, and it is in high demand right now in the Far East, Australia and New Zealand,” says Kim Henriksen, managing director of GEA Process Engineering, Australia.

“There is a strong focus on quality and security around the production of powdered milk, and that was one of the primary considerations for selecting [the] supplier for this plant,” said Gregg Pollack, director of the board at Tasmanian Dairy Products.

The new facility is designed for the production of milk powder for export. Tasmanian Dairy Products said it is experiencing great demand for milk powder from Asia and the Middle East. The quality of milk and the safety in the production method are particularly important to the Asian buyers, the company noted.

“It is still not so long ago that they had a huge scandal in China with milk powder that made children mortally ill,” said Henriksen. “Such scandals increase focus on the quality of the raw milk and the monitoring of the milk powder production.

“This increases the demand for products from Australia and New Zealand where they have traditions for good dairy products. In the end, GEA benefits from this demand since we can quickly supply safe facilities in a high growth market.”

The overall price for the whole facility for Tasmanian Dairy Products Co. will be about Euro60 million, and once it is ready for operation, the plant will provide fulltime jobs for about 65 local employees. More than 150 people will work on building the plant.

Several specialised engineers from GEA are to be work with Tasmanian Dairy Products over the next few months in order to finish the project on time.