{"id":686228,"date":"2026-05-22T00:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686228\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T00:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:37:13","slug":"sfk-australia-expands-local-footprint-with-two-new-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686228\/","title":{"rendered":"SFK Australia expands local footprint with two new facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

SKF Australia has expanded its local footprint with the opening of new facilities in Perth and Brisbane \u2013 allowing the company to better support its customers both locally and internationally.<\/p>\n

The Swedish-born business, which is the world\u2019s largest bearing manufacturer, has been producing bearings, seals, and lubrication systems to reduce friction since\u00a01907.<\/p>\n

Specialising in engineering, maintenance, condition monitoring, and remanufacturing for full life cycle management, it\u2019s now represented in 130 countries around the\u00a0world.<\/p>\n

SKF officially set up shop in Australia in 1908 and has continued to grow its presence and experience in the local market ever\u00a0since.<\/p>\n

Connected and efficient <\/p>\n

At SKF\u2019s Circular Solution Centres, the team refurbishes bearings and other rail products, handling all aspects of the process \u2013including cleaning, polishing, inspection and measurement, replacement of worn parts, lubrication and sealing \u2013 to restore bearings to required specifications. Between the two new centres, SKF has capacity to refurbish in excess of 35,000 bearings per year.<\/p>\n

Local workshop capabilities include the refurbishment of axleboxes, bearing units, housings and related components, for both passenger and freight rail applications. It processes more than 1000 axleboxes per\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

SKF\u2019s new facility in Forrestfield, Western Australia features a large, state-of-the-art rail bearing remanufacturing factory and warehousing space.<\/p>\n

It officially opened its doors in early 2025 and primarily serves SKF\u2019s Western Australian customers. The 5 Green Star-rated facility also represents SKF\u2019s commitment to\u00a0sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 40 per cent of our power is generated by solar, and the remainder sourced from the grid is all green energy,\u201d said SKF railway engineer Stephen Fasolo.<\/p>\n

Another recent development for SKF in Australia is the relocation of its East Coast workshop from Williamstown in Victoria to new premises at Eagle Farm in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy to have grown our team, with five new people brought on to work in the Eagle Farm facility and one staff member transferring over from our Williamstown facility,\u201d said Alistair King, East Coast Circular Solutions Centre Manager at SKF Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new facility helps us to support our customers with fast turnaround times and reliable service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>SKF\u2019s new facility in Eagle Farm is much larger than its previous base in Williamstown. Image: SKF Australia<\/p>\n

Vishesh Arora, Head of Services at SKF Australia, said the new facility is triple the size of the old one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe total building size is about 2000 square metres, with the warehouse and workshop space measuring 1680 square metres,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is much larger than where we were before in Williamstown, which was under 500 square metres. With more space, our throughput can be greater, and we now have a renewed, modular\u00a0workshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also now integrated with SKF\u2019s broader industrial offering within the rail\u00a0sector, giving us access to consumables,\u00a0as\u00a0well as more office and storage space.\u201d<\/p>\n

This allows SKF\u2019s sales and service teams to sit together in the same office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means better communication between those teams and benefits for our customers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

With the opening of the new facility, SKF has also reorganised its two workstations into a single streamlined operation, to be more efficient.<\/p>\n

In addition, SKF has digitised some of its activities, introducing clear key metric dashboards that are monitored continuously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now notice any bottlenecks that crop up, and we\u2019re tracking machine availability and uptime,\u201d Arora said. \u201cWe\u2019re meeting 94 per cent of our key metrics since we started tracking them, which is a very good result.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Eagle Farm facility caters to customers in Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

King said the move is good news for some of the company\u2019s biggest customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also improved turnaround times for some of our customers in New Zealand,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Cutting costs and emissions <\/p>\n

With rail operators under pressure from rising costs and tighter greenhouse gas reduction targets, SKF is helping to extend bearing life and reduce waste without sacrificing performance.<\/p>\n

Its refurbishment process enables up to 90 per cent of original bearing material to be reused, delivering a lower carbon footprint and about 70 per cent cost savings compared with purchasing new\u00a0components.<\/p>\n

\u201cBearing refurbishment is a fraction of the cost of purchasing new bearings, and the lead time is weeks, not months,\u201d explained Gavin Acker, Segment Business Manager \u2013 Rail at SKF Australia.<\/p>\n

The company also streamlines logistics through its \u201cOne-for-One\u201d refurbishment\u00a0model.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a customer sends us a pallet of 100 bearings, for example, they will always get 100 bearings back,\u201d said Lucas Barnard, Forrestfield Circular Solutions Centre Manager at SKF Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bearings are refurbished, or if they can\u2019t be refurbished, they are replaced with new SKF units. That means there\u2019s just one purchase order, and no guesswork.\u201d<\/p>\n

SKF\u2019s customers also benefit from full traceability and robust reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a system that tracks bearings throughout their life cycle \u2013 each one has a unique serial number,\u201d Barnard highlighted. \u201cBecause these bearings can go through a few cycles of refurbishment, we need to know when they have reached the end of their life cycle, so they can be written off.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the case of an incident such as a rail derailment, Barnard said bearings are one of the first things an investigator will look at.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have strict safety and quality protocols in place, and our traceability means we have our finger on the pulse \u2013 so an expired product will never become the weak link that leads to a\u00a0failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping rail rolling<\/p>\n

SKF Australia combines local expertise with global engineering standards. It boasts a highly skilled Australian team, many of whom have several decades of experience<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud to say that we have very experienced individuals at SKF Australia, not just on the workshop management level but even on the shop floor,\u201d said\u00a0Arora.<\/p>\n

\u201cSKF has invested in their development and in turn they have stayed with the company for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fasolo said there are many benefits to SKF Australia being part of an established global company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work very collaboratively with the product design team, and we develop new products for the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work closely with customers to understand their needs, such as long maintenance interval bearings, and create\u00a0solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also feed the information that we glean during the refurbishment process back to SKF\u2019s factories and\u00a0design\u00a0centres, to improve product\u00a0performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said as SKF continues to expand its footprint and capabilities, its investment in local facilities, digitalisation, and skilled personnel positions the company to better support Australia and New Zealand\u2019s growing rail sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bringing global resources together with local experience, SKF is reinforcing its role as a long-term partner to operators \u2013 helping to keep fleets moving while balancing performance, cost, and\u00a0sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SKF Australia has expanded its local footprint with the opening of new facilities in Perth and Brisbane \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-686228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}