In a time of acute skills shortages, Australia’s consulting engineers are working hard to ensure the future of both Australia and the industry by developing innovative business diversity, building educational projects, ensuring a career for engineering graduates, creating opportune partnerships and using DIMA’s immigration program.

Mipac has been contracted through Xstrata Technology to design and commission the plant-wide control system and electrical systems for a major upgrade to Kazzinc’s Ust-Kamenogorsk plants in Kazakhstan.

BOC has officially opened its $10m operations centre in Wagga Wagga, NSW. The facility uses sophisticated technology to package ammonia and sulphur dioxide for markets around Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWFN) has released a report which says energy-saving technologies would reduce the need for new power plants and bring about massive greenhouse improvements.

Intelligent Systems Australia (ISA) has been approved by AICSYS Advanced Industrial Computer Systems to be master distributor of its products in Australia.

Victoria’s talent for great design across diverse manufacturing sectors was showcased in October during the State of Design 2006 program.

Scientific Solutions has reached an exclusive distribution agreement with Quantachrome Instruments, a leading supplier of high technology surface area and pore size instruments to distribute Quantachrome Instruments in Australia and New Zealand.

The 2006 Engineering Excellence Awards have this year recognised the world-class expertise of Queensland engineers with the award of the overall RW Hawken Award being presented to Brisbane-based Sinclair Knight Merz working with HOK Sport Venue & Event for their work on the Nanjing Sports Park in China.

The Technology Exhibitions Week held at Rho, Milan’s new exhibition centre, from 20 through 23 September drew over 65,000 visitors. The event was dedicated to components, instrumentation, electronics, automation, motion control and industrial maintenance and aimed to test a new format by hosting five pre-eminent international trade shows at the same time.

APV, part of the Invensys Group, has announced the completion of its US$5m purpose-built manufacturing plant in Xidu, Shanghai. The factory will manufacture and assemble pumps, valves and other fabricated products for the Chinese market.

In a breakthrough for the oil and gas industry in Asia-Pacific, Western Australian company ISA Technologies has announced that it is working with Schlumberger, the world’s leading supplier of information solutions for the oil and gas industry.

Safety In Action will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2007, with organisers of the workplace safety exhibition planning two new feature areas to keep visitors up to date.

The adoption of RFID continues to gather momentum, and hardware and software spending will accelerate in late 2006 and 2007 as true benefits are documented, according to Gartner, Inc.

Frost & Sullivan has selected Emerson Process Management as the recipient of the 2006 South-East Asian Customer Service Leadership Award for Process Automation Suppliers.

Despite Brisbane’s traffic chaos, a steady stream of visitors attended the Queensland Manufacturing Technology Exhibition (QMan) 2006, held from 17-19 October. The exhibition attracted just under 1900 visitors and 94 exhibitors.