Corporate: Perth's Costco warehouse & BHP iron ore project among WestStar's latest $3m worth of wins

Construction and engineering services provider WestStar Industrial (ASX:WSI) has added a further $3m worth of contract wins to its order book including Perth’s Costco warehouse and BHP’s (ASX:BHP) South Flank iron ore project.

Costco is arriving in Western Australia early next year with a $55m warehouse being built near Perth airport.

The warehouse will be 14,000sqm — more than three times the size of a normal supermarket.

WestStar’s prefabricated concrete subsidiary, Precast Australia, will supply wall panels for the construction.

WestStar will also serve BHP’s next planned iron ore mine at South Flank. The mining giant anticipates it will be one of the world’s largest iron ore operations and will make up for its Yandi mine that is being closed within the next few years.

Production will begin in early 2021 and Wood Mackenzie has predicted a capital intensity of $US36 per tonne.

WestStar, which will supply precast concrete elements to the project, noted there was an opportunity for substantial growth in this particular contract award.

So far this financial year, WestStar has won $18m in contracts and it is expecting more.

“There are many opportunities to expand our footprint,” said Mark Dimasi, managing director of SIMPEC (the WestStar subsidiary servicing Costco).

Shares rose as much as 7.4 per cent this morning to 2.9c. This is more than double the 1.3c it started 2019 at.

Corporate: WestStar Industrial banked $17.8 million last quarter; shares jump 55 pc

In other ASX small cap corporate news today:

eCargo (ASX:ECG) has formed a joint venture to sell fast moving consumer goods into Vietnam and Cambodia. The venture will be called ABG Group and shareholders were told its goal is “to create one of the world’s most recognised professional sourcing and distribution networks”. eCargo’s business partners are Oz Golden Care and AusCom international and each party will hold 33 per cent. The JV will focus on food and nutrition, particularly infant formula.

Haranga Resources’ (ASX:HAR) has raised $427,205.70 from a recent entitlement issue. While it was just 21 per cent of the total it was hoping to get, the capital raising was fully underwritten. Haranga has been suspended from trading since January 2018 while it tries to recapitalise and find a new project.

CropLogic (ASX:CLI) is on the ASX’s Watchlist after giving contradictory statements about the screening of a director it appointed last month. Stephen Silver allegedly either failed to notify or misled his US employer about private trades he made. Without admitting or denying the findings Silver agreed to a penalty. CropLogic told the ASX on September 3 it was not aware of the allegations before proposing him as director. But a week later the company admitted it knew but proceeded with the hire anyway. CropLogic said the FINRA violations were allegations and findings, not convictions and Silver made no admission of wrong doing.