A full installation and commissioning contract has been awarded to Rockwell Automation Australia for an induced draft (ID) fan upgrade at the BlueScope Steel Port Kembla steelworks plant. Installed in December 2004, the first of three 3000 kW, 6600 V PowerFlex 7000 variable speed drives (VSD) is already operational. The entire upgrade is scheduled to be completed by June 2005.

Citect has sealed a AU$2.6 million, contract with China Gas Company, to control and monitor gas distribution to 5.5 million households.

Visiting 3 cities in one week, the Regional Roadshow Series will bring the latest in automation and control technology and training to key industrial centres, starting off in North Queensland in June.

One of the world's largest crane fabrication and maintenance organisations, Konecranes, has established a new headquarters in Sydney following vigorous growth throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The traditional PBX telephone exchange has been connecting businesses for decades. But the writing is on the wall, as more cost-effective and easily-managed voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technologies increasingly penetrate the enterprise.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is moving upstream from the supply chain into the heart of manufacturing operations.

The Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia (MESA), a technical society of Engineers Australia (EA), has broadened the scope of its annual awards to recognise excellence in asset management at an enterprise level.

The largest range of coding machines in New Zealand and the most extensive nationwide service is now claimed by Tronics, which has just announced a management buyout of the company.

Data Systems International Asia/Pacific (DSI A/P), provider of wireless data collection technology to a wide range of industries within the supply chain, has announced the appointment of a new managing director.

Citect has been awarded contracts with Western Mining Corporation (WMC) Resources and BHP Billiton Iron Ore to supply CitectIIM. The software contracts are worth AU$300K and AU$380K respectively.

Emerson Process Management has won a $4 million contract for digital automation and control of minerals processing at the BHP Billiton nickel/cobalt mine and telephone facility under construction in Ravensthorpe, Australia.

Tenix Alliance has acquired the Queensland energy services of Powerco, a New Zealand-based energy distributor. The purchase does not include Powerco's Tasmanian operations.

The highly regarded Support Centre Practices (SCP) certification has once again been achieved by Rockwell Automation for the company's Australia-based Asia-Pacific technical support centre.

According to a number of reports coming out of the US, revenue from RFID tag manufacturing may reach US$2.8 billion in five years. Revenues were forecast to jump to US$2.8 billion in 2009 from US$300 million last year.

Omron Corp and Delmia Corp, a Dassault Systèmes company, announced a strategic partnership through which Omron will distribute Delmia Automation as its collaborative programming desktop for control engineers.