An anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation has been opened by the UK Trade Remedies Authority into Chinese-made boom lifts, following a complaint from UK manufacturer Niftylift. The probe covers telescopic and articulated boom lifts, including sub-assemblies, with working heights of 6 m and above, such as models like the Dingli BT44HRT now entering the UK market. Scissor lifts, forklifts, vertical mast lifts, mobile self-propelled cranes and motor vehicles with integrated boom or scissor assemblies are explicitly excluded, so procurement teams must check machine classifications carefully.

Engineers Against Poverty chair Richard Threlfall calls for the engineering, infrastructure and construction profession to lead on cutting whole‑life emissions and controlling capital cost overruns in major civils programmes. He argues that effective infrastructure governance must move beyond compliance to active stewardship of carbon, cost and social outcomes, with engineers shaping procurement models and performance metrics rather than leaving them to financiers and policymakers. For practitioners, this signals greater responsibility for transparent cost baselines, carbon accounting and value-for-money evidence on large public works.

A Productivity Commission proposal to replace company tax with a hybrid cash flow tax has drawn a lukewarm response from the Minerals Council of Australia and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, which warn it could deter long-life, capital-intensive projects. Industry groups argue that immediate expensing of capital and tighter limits on interest deductibility may not suit multi-decade mines with heavy upfront spend on shafts, processing plants and rail links. They are calling for detailed modelling of impacts on marginal projects, junior explorers and existing royalty and PRRT settings before any shift proceeds.