PetroChina has announced plans to expand its use of Honeywell advanced information management and process modelling software tools to 17 additional refining and petrochemical sites across China. [ + ]

The Australian and New Zealand Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) market earned revenues of $22.8 million in 2013 and is set to reach $31.1 million in 2017, according to new analysis from Frost & Sullivan. [ + ]

Metso has been triply honoured for its work in the process control field, receiving Control magazine's Readers' Choice Award, Automation World's First Team Award and a Control Engineering Engineers' Choice honourable mention. [ + ]

The cream of Australia's automation, control and instrumentation experts will gather in Melbourne next week at ACI Connect. [ + ]

A new system developed in Germany has the ability to monitor the condition of lubricating oils, hydraulic oils and other fluids in industrial installations without interrupting ongoing operations. [ + ]

Orica is in trouble again - this time for allegedly polluting waters in the Sugarloaf State Conservation Area (SCA) after failed attempts to remediate mining subsidence near Newcastle. [ + ]

High gas prices could spell the loss of more than 100,000 Australian jobs, Manufacturing Australia chair Sue Morphet told the ABC's 7.30 program. The manufacturing industry is calling on the federal government to intervene. [ + ]

The humble Atlantic razor clam (Ensis directus) has inspired the development of a robotic clam that can burrow through undersea soil quickly while using very little energy. [ + ]

Universal Robots' flexible, lightweight robots have been launched in the Australian and New Zealand markets. The simple-to-program robots have been targeted at small and medium-sized customers in the manufacturing, packaging and process industries. [ + ]

Honeywell's annual UniSim Design Challenge is open for 2014. The Challenge involves a series of process design competitions which recognise young talent from across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). [ + ]

Developed by Engineering Education Australia on behalf of Engineers Australia, the EOL centre (www.engineeringonline.com) has been described as a "game changer" for engineers' continuous professional development. [ + ]

Rockwell Automation has been named as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the sixth time. The company has also announced its 2013 Corporate Responsibility Report is available. [ + ]

RMIT has launched the Australia-India Research Centre for Automation Software Engineering (AICAUSE) with industry partner ABB. [ + ]

Honeywell's Building Solutions and Process Solutions businesses have received the highest level of CMMI - Maturity Level 5. Of the more than 6000 organisations with published appraisals results, only 6% have achieved this result. [ + ]

The 100 largest accidents in the hydrocarbon industry are estimated to have cost the industry more than US$34 billion, a new publication from insurance provider Marsh shows. [ + ]