分类： business

After decades of growth from a small family fish and chip shop to a national seafood industry leader, Australia’s largest wild-caught prawn producer Raptis and Sons Group has collapsed, sending ripples of economic uncertainty through coastal communities across the country and leaving 200 workers unemployed.

Founded in the 1950s by Greek first-generation migrants Anna and Arthur Raptis Snr in Adelaide, the company built a sprawling fishing empire over three generations. It operated wild prawn harvests across four jurisdictions—South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland—and fin fish fisheries in waters off the NT, Queensland and New South Wales. Beyond fishing, the group owned popular seafood brands Agrios, Seaport and Ocean Pearl, ran a processing and packing facility in Brisbane, and distributed its own and third-party seafood to major national wholesale markets including the Sydney Fish Markets, as well as international buyers. Its 19-vessel fleet includes 15 boats based out of the tiny Gulf of Carpentaria town of Karumba, which has a total population of just 500 and relies heavily on Raptis’ operations to sustain its local economy.

Appointed as administrators in March, insolvency practitioners have confirmed that all efforts to secure a buyer for the struggling business have failed. The company first launched a sale process in late 2024, drawing initial interest from multiple prospective investors, but no deal was finalized to save the business. Earlier hopes that a new buyer could inject emergency funding to allow the fleet to participate in the 2025 banana prawn season, which runs from April 1 to mid-June, have also been dashed, after negotiations for interim financing collapsed without agreement.

Financial documents filed by administrator Ben Campbell reveal the full scale of the company’s liabilities. While Raptis holds more than $26 million in equity, it owes $35.2 million to the National Australia Bank. In total, 296 separate parties—including employees, local businesses and government agencies—are owed a collective $31.6 million. Company directors Jim Raptis and Christine Raptis are among the creditors owed $2.7 million in total. At the time of administration, the company employed 196 people: 123 full-time staff, four part-time workers and 69 casual employees, all of whom now face unemployment.

Industry insiders and administrators point to a perfect storm of market and operational challenges that drove the business to collapse. The core triggers cited are a severe oversupply of banana prawns during the 2022/2023 season, followed by two consecutive years of lower-than-expected catch volumes, and rapidly rising operating costs that squeezed profit margins to unsustainable levels. Most notably, a national diesel shortage that followed the global energy price shock drastically increased fuel costs for the company’s fleet, adding further financial pressure.

Veteran federal MP Bob Katter, whose electorate covers Karumba, has blamed Queensland state government policies restricting fishing licenses and the national fuel crisis for delivering the fatal blow to the historic business. He warns that the collapse is part of a broader, decades-long decline of Australia’s domestic fishing industry, driven by restrictive regulation that has already shrunk the Karumba fleet by two-thirds during his political career.

Katter argued that environmental policies supported by green activists have gutted local fishing activity, pointing out that Australia now imports 40 percent of its seafood, a share that is projected to grow as more domestic operations close. “The fuel crisis hitting the once great fishing industry of North Queensland – soon there won’t be any left,” Katter told NewsWire. “The fuel crisis is going to kill what’s left of the fishing industry that’s been killed off by the greenies. I have said continuously we will go without fuel, and now what I am telling my fellow Australians is, ‘you will go without food’.”

For small regional centers like Karumba, the collapse of the town’s largest employer leaves an uncertain future, with local businesses that rely on the fishing fleet now bracing for secondary economic shocks as jobs and economic activity disappear from the community.

Australia’s new residential construction sector saw a dramatic jump in project approvals during February, even in the face of consecutive central bank interest rate hikes, though the country continues to fall short of its ambitious national housing supply goal, new official data shows.

New statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal that total dwelling approvals climbed 29.7% month-on-month in February, hitting 19,022 projects. The strong uptick was driven almost entirely by multi-unit developments: raw data shows apartment approvals skyrocketed 191.2% to 5,398 units, marking a 29.8% annual increase compared to February 2023. Townhouse approvals also rebounded sharply, rising 73.8% to 2,981 dwellings after a 38.7% drop in January.

Despite the monthly surge, experts warn the overall pace of new home development is still not enough to meet the targets set out in the National Housing Accord, which aims to build an extra 1 million new homes over five years to address critical national supply shortages. To hit this goal, Australia needs to approve and complete roughly 20,000 new homes every month, but long-term approval trends remain well below this benchmark.

AMP senior economist My Bui noted that monthly approval data is notoriously volatile, so a longer-term perspective offers more accurate insight into the sector’s trajectory. Looking across a longer timeframe, annualized approval levels have held steady around 196,000 new homes per year. While this volume roughly balances demand amid the current slowdown in population growth, it falls far short of the 240,000 annual approvals needed to make up for the cumulative supply shortfall that built up during the rapid population growth of 2023 and 2024. Bui added that completion rates have also failed to pick up as projected, remaining flat rather than following the upward trend that earlier approval numbers suggested would emerge by 2025.

Notably, February’s approval surge occurred even after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) implemented a 25-basis-point cash rate hike that pushed the benchmark rate to 3.85% that month. The central bank followed with another 25-basis-point increase in March, lifting the cash rate to 4.10%, and financial markets broadly expect another rate hike when the RBA’s board meets again in May.

Beyond project approvals, the total value of the nation’s residential development pipeline also hit a new record high in February. Total combined approval value across all construction types reached $20.43 billion, representing a 14.4% annual increase. Residential construction alone accounted for most of the growth, jumping 30.8% to an all-time high of $12.5 billion, with new home builds rising 35.9% to $11.21 billion. That growth was partially offset by a 1.2% dip in renovation and extension project approvals, which fell to $1.29 billion. Non-residential construction, including offices, retail spaces and industrial facilities, also saw a 4.4% drop in approvals to $7.93 billion, following an unusually strong performance in January.

As the development pipeline grows, national property market data indicates the sector has hit a clear turning point in its current cycle, with rising interest rates beginning to temper the rapid home price growth seen over the past two years. New figures from property analytics firm REA Group show national median home prices rose just 0.3% in March, pushing the national median value to $908,000. While that leaves prices 9.4% higher than one year ago – a gain of roughly $94,800 for the median property – the pace of growth has slowed significantly.

REA Group senior economist Eleanor Creagh explained that slowing price growth confirms a clear shift in market momentum, as rising borrowing costs weigh on buyer activity. “Recent rate rises will weigh on buyer sentiment, borrowing capacity, and erode already poor affordability,” she said. However, Creagh noted that persistent supply shortages are preventing prices from falling, even as interest rates rise. A resilient national labor market, ongoing population growth, and targeted support for first-time home buyers continue to keep demand strong against a backdrop of severely limited available housing stock, she added.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has triggered widespread economic disruptions across continents, reshaping energy markets, straining national energy reserves, and driving volatile swings in global financial systems in recent weeks. While diplomatic signals of a potential de-escalation have temporarily calmed market jitters, the tangible damage to critical energy infrastructure and persistent supply chain risks continue to pressure economies worldwide.

On Wednesday, global financial markets posted sharp gains following two consecutive days of upward momentum, driven by remarks from key leaders hinting at a possible end to hostilities between Iran and Western-backed forces. U.S. former President Donald Trump indicated that the conflict could wrap up within approximately two weeks, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed Tehran holds the political will to reach a ceasefire with Israel and the United States – though he emphasized the need for ironclad guarantees to prevent future outbreaks of violence. The upbeat diplomatic signals sent Asian stocks soaring: Japanese and South Korean benchmark indexes jumped in early morning trading, following a massive rally on Wall Street a day earlier that saw the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average close up 2.5%, and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite surge 3.8%. Oil prices also pulled back from recent multi-year highs on the ceasefire hopes, though benchmark crude still held firmly above the $100 per barrel threshold, underscoring persistent supply uncertainty.

Beyond market volatility, the conflict has already inflicted permanent damage to critical regional infrastructure. Iranian state media reported this week that a major desalination plant on Qeshm Island, located near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz – the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global oil supplies transit daily – has been completely knocked out of service by targeted strikes. Health ministry official Mohsen Farhadi told Iran’s ISNA news agency that the facility cannot be repaired in the short term, cutting off a key source of fresh water for the island’s population. Separate reports confirmed an Iranian attack ignited a fire on the Al Salmi, a 332-meter Kuwaiti-flagged crude tanker docked at Dubai’s port. No casualties were reported, and Dubai fire crews successfully extinguished the blaze within hours, but the incident highlighted the growing risk to commercial shipping in the region.

Geopolitical risks have also disrupted transit for global shipping operators. China’s foreign ministry announced Tuesday that three Chinese-registered vessels have successfully completed transit out of the Strait of Hormuz, with assistance from unspecified relevant parties. Tracking data confirms two container ships operated by Chinese shipping giant Cosco made the passage on Monday, though Beijing has not released any details on the identity or status of the third vessel.

The economic fallout of the conflict is already being felt far beyond the Middle East, with consumer prices and energy policy being upended across Europe, Africa, and Asia. In the Eurozone, March inflation climbed to 2.5% – the highest reading recorded since January 2025 – driven almost entirely by skyrocketing energy costs tied to Middle East supply disruptions. According to Jean Maynier, head of global maritime analytics firm Kpler, Asian economies face the most severe impact, with the region already sliding toward a full-blown energy crisis. Maynier told Agence France-Presse that Asian nations do not hold enough domestic energy reserves to offset the gap left by disrupted Middle Eastern supplies, noting that shortages will be felt across both large emerging economies like China and smaller developing nations including the Philippines and Indonesia.

To cope with the looming shortages, governments across the Global South have already implemented emergency energy conservation measures. Indonesia became one of the first major Asian economies to announce fuel rationing this week, alongside a mandatory work-from-home order for all civil servants, as the country moves to preserve existing energy stockpiles amid global price hikes. Jakarta has also ruled out any immediate fuel price increases, despite growing pressure on the national budget from the conflict. In East Africa, Ethiopia announced that it would prioritize fuel allocations for essential goods transport and public transit vehicles, as widespread shortages linked to the conflict grip the country. South Asia has seen even more drastic action: Sri Lanka this week announced a nearly 40% increase in electricity prices, effective Wednesday, to offset energy shortages stemming from the Middle East war. This marks the third fuel price hike the country has implemented this month, bringing total increases to more than 33%, and Sri Lanka has already moved to a four-day working week for public employees to cut overall energy consumption.

A fresh announcement from former U.S. President Donald Trump outlining a timeline for a U.S. military drawdown in the conflict with Iran has triggered a sharp, broad-based rally across global equity markets, lifting Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 and all major Wall Street indices as investors grew increasingly optimistic the oil market crisis could be coming to an end.

On opening bell, ASX 200 futures jumped 137.10 points, a 1.62% gain that pushed the benchmark to 8618.90, following a powerful positive lead from U.S. markets that closed the prior trading session with steep gains. All three major Wall Street indices climbed nearly 2.5% or more on the session: the S&P 500 notched a 2.9% increase, the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite surged 3.83%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a blue-chip index heavy on industrial stocks, added 2.49%.

This market upswing comes on the heels of a brutal March for Australian equities. At Tuesday’s close, the ASX 200 had posted a 7.8% monthly drop, its worst monthly performance since June 2022. The decline was driven largely by widespread investor fears that a prolonged military conflict in the Middle East would keep energy prices elevated, with crude prices surging as much as 50% in a short window amid the tension.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office overnight, Trump offered a clear timeline for de-escalation, responding to a question about when U.S. military involvement in the conflict with Iran would conclude by saying he expects American forces to withdraw within “two or three weeks”. “I think two or three weeks. We’ll leave because there’s no reason for us to do this,” Trump stated, adding “We’ll be leaving very soon.”

Tony Sycamore, a senior market analyst at IG, noted that two key factors combined to drive the overnight market surge: fresh signals of de-escalation in the Iran conflict, and cooler-than-expected U.S. labor data that raised expectations the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates in the near term. “Starting with energy prices and the ongoing situation in the Middle East: West Texas Intermediate crude oil is set to finish the day at $US101.56, reversing from the $US106.86 high it hit earlier in the session,” Sycamore explained. “This sell-off was initially triggered by de-escalation headlines that began breaking during the Asian session yesterday, notably President Trump signalling he is willing to wind down the US military campaign against Iran.”

The sudden shift in market sentiment underscores how closely global equity and commodity markets are tied to geopolitical risk in the Middle East, with even tentative signs of conflict de-escalation enough to reverse weeks of investor anxiety driven by surging oil prices.