CeMAT Australia 2026: What We Saw, Heard, and Learned at Stand B31

Phoebe Cruz
Jul 7
3 min read

The show floor was loud. Our best conversations were quiet.

Three days, one stand, and more good conversations than we could have planned for. CeMAT Australia 2026 wrapped up at MCEC Melbourne, and if you stopped by Stand B31, thank you — whether you were there for five minutes or fifty. This wasn't a hard-sell exercise for us. It was three days of listening to how warehouses across VIC, NSW, and QLD are actually thinking right now, and a few themes came up again and again.

What kept coming up

Capacity without expansion. Almost every operator we spoke with is being asked to store more without the luxury of a bigger footprint. Land, leases, and construction timelines don't move fast enough to match demand, so the pressure lands squarely on cubic space. This is exactly where racking design earns its keep — going taller with selective pallet racking, going deeper with drive-in or double-deep configurations, or reconfiguring aisle widths to claw back usable floor space. For most sites, the fastest capacity gain isn't a new building. It's a smarter layout inside the one they've already got.

“The fastest capacity gain isn't a new building. It's a smarter layout inside the one you've already got.”

Automation-readiness. Even businesses not automating today want their racking to not stand in the way of it tomorrow. We had a lot of conversations about tolerances, upright spacing, and beam configurations that stay compatible with AGVs, ASRS, and pick-to-light systems down the track. The takeaway for us — and for anyone specifying racking now — is that “automation-ready” isn't a separate product category. It's a design consideration built into the racking system from day one, so a future retrofit doesn't mean ripping everything out.

“‘Automation-ready’ isn't a separate product category — it's a design decision made on day one.”

Compliance as standard, not upsell. This was the theme that came up with the most urgency. Engineering certification, load rating signage, and routine safety inspections are no longer treated as optional extras — they're baseline expectations from insurers, auditors, and increasingly, from within businesses themselves. That shift is a big part of why we run a dedicated rack safety inspection service alongside our racking supply, and it's a conversation we're glad to be having more often rather than less.

“Compliance isn't an upsell anymore — it's the baseline everyone already expects.”

What we showcased on the stand

Telescopic cantilever racking — the clear crowd favourite, with more visitors stopping to ask about this than anything else on the stand. Its adjustable arm length makes it a natural fit for sites handling varied load lengths without committing to a fixed configuration.
Cantilever racking — built for long, awkward, or irregular loads like timber, steel, and piping where standard beams just don't fit.
Longspan shelving — the flexible middle ground for bulkier hand-loaded items that don't suit pallet racking but need more depth than standard shelving.
Four-way shuttle cart — high-density storage that moves product, not people, with the shuttle able to travel both along and across the lane. A strong fit for the capacity-without-expansion conversations we kept having on the stand.
CTU/ACR racking — engineered racking built around automated crane and transfer unit systems, designed so the structure and the automation work together rather than around each other.
Various pallet racking profiles — a range of upright and beam profiles on display, still the workhorse of warehouse storage and the fastest way to add organised, accessible pallet positions.

Missed the show? The offer still stands

If CeMAT wasn't on your calendar this year, that's alright — everything we brought to Stand B31 is available without the show floor. We're still offering a free layout consultation to help you work out where extra capacity is hiding in your current space, and our quote turnaround is as fast as ever. Reach out through our website whenever you're ready, and we'll take it from there.