DXN secures $4.1M Melbourne Airport Edge data centre contract, adds $1.6M Globalstar variation
DXN Limited has been awarded an approximately $4.1 million contract by Australia Pacific Airports (Melbourne) Pty Ltd (APAM), the operator of Melbourne Airport, for the supply of a prefabricated Edge data centre facility.
Separately, the prefabricated modular data centre specialist secured an additional ~$1.6 million variation order to an existing contract with telecommunications customer Globalstar (refer prior ASX announcement dated 2 June 2025). These are two distinct transactions and should not be blended into a single figure.
Together, the developments add aviation and transport to DXN’s Asia Pacific track record spanning government, telco and enterprise infrastructure.
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What DXN will deliver at Melbourne Airport
Under the agreement, DXN will design, engineer, manufacture, factory acceptance test, deliver, install and commission a complete prefabricated facility. The scope covers the full lifecycle from factory build through to on-site commissioning.
The facility incorporates:
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Critical power
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Cooling
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Fire detection and suppression
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Supporting infrastructure
Manufacture will be undertaken within DXN’s manufacturing network. The facility will then be delivered to site at Melbourne Airport for installation, site acceptance testing and commissioning targeted towards the end of 1H CY27.
The facility forms part of APAM’s Airport Development Plan, Information and Communication Technology (ADP ICT) enabling works program, supporting critical ICT infrastructure at one of Australia’s largest aviation and freight hubs.
Why airports need Edge data centres
Edge infrastructure refers to compute and network capacity located physically near the operations it serves, rather than housed in a distant central facility.
Airports operate a dense mix of latency-sensitive, safety-critical systems. As airports digitise and adopt automation, sensing and real-time analytics, the requirement for local, resilient, on-site capacity continues to grow. That combination makes on-site Edge capacity increasingly relevant to how these sites function.
The prefabrication approach offers several practical advantages:
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The facility is fully assembled and tested in a controlled factory before it leaves site.
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Delivery is compressed from years into months.
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The majority of construction risk is removed from the customer’s site.
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These benefits are especially pronounced on constrained, security-controlled, 24/7 live sites such as an operating airport.
According to DXN, customers are increasingly electing to buy factory-built prefabricated facilities rather than committing to multi-year on-site construction programs. This structural shift toward prefabrication underpins DXN’s addressable market and competitive positioning within Edge infrastructure.
A new sector vertical and a growing Edge pipeline
The contract extends DXN’s presence into the aviation and transport infrastructure sector, adding to its existing track record across government, telecommunications and blue-chip enterprise customers in Asia Pacific.
Being selected by the operator of one of Australia’s largest aviation and freight hubs is described by the Company as a strong endorsement of DXN’s capability to deliver complex, mission-critical infrastructure for major infrastructure owners. The award also reflects what DXN characterises as accelerating customer preference for factory-built prefabricated facilities over traditional on-site construction.
The aviation vertical is one of several new geographies and use cases DXN has entered in 2026: a South America cable landing station contract worth A$5.3 million, awarded by a repeat global internet company customer, marked the company’s first entry into the Latin American market earlier this year.
| Item | Customer | Value | Scope | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne Airport contract | APAM (Melbourne Airport operator) | ~$4.1M | Design, manufacture, deliver, install & commission prefabricated Edge facility | Commissioning towards end 1H CY27 |
| Globalstar variation | Globalstar (telco) | ~$1.6M | Additional project fees & logistics under existing contract | Not specified |
The Globalstar variation order reflects additional project fees and logistics costs under the existing contract, and does not represent new project scope beyond this.
Director’s perspective
Shalini Lagrutta, Managing Director, DXN
“Melbourne Airport is precisely the kind of Edge site where our model delivers the most value. Critical ICT infrastructure needs to sit close to the operations it supports, and it must be delivered without disrupting an airport that runs around the clock. By building the facility in our factory and delivering it fully constructed and pre-tested, we take most of the risk off the customer’s site and compress a program that would traditionally take years into months.”
Lagrutta added that a growing number of customers are reaching the same conclusion, viewing prefabrication as the faster and higher-quality route to new capacity compared with a multi-year upgrade of an existing facility.
What comes next for DXN
The immediate focus centres on the delivery roadmap, with installation, site acceptance testing and commissioning of the Melbourne Airport facility targeted towards the end of 1H CY27.
The contract sits within DXN’s Modular Division, one of the Company’s three core divisions. The Modular Division delivers prefabricated Edge data centres and critical infrastructure, alongside the Data Centre Operations division, which owns and manages facilities in Darwin and Hobart, and the capital-light Data Centre as a Service (DCaaS) model.
The Modular Division’s pipeline extends well beyond airport infrastructure: DXN’s maiden AI HPC contract, a binding A$8.8 million deal with a US-listed neo-cloud operator, carries a conditional follow-on campus opportunity projected to exceed USD$200 million over 12 years, contingent on successful proof-of-concept delivery.
The dual wins point to continued momentum in DXN’s Edge infrastructure pipeline, extending the Company’s reach into a new sector vertical while expanding work under an existing telecommunications contract.
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