Australian companies, institutions and individuals are being invited to express their interest in collaborating with their counterparts across the globe in developing manufacturing processes for the revolutionary 21st century field of nanotechnology.

Forklift technology developer and manufacturer Crown Equipment finished in a high position in this year's prestigious ranking (2002-2003) made by a German awards body, thereby highlighting the amount of design intensity put behind developing these industrial vehicles.

Citect has announced the award of an AU$4 million contract for three major gas projects with Hong Kong-listed company, China Gas Holdings Limited.

Sydney-based Armacel Technology Group has won the 2003 Innovator of Year Award at the North American Association of Independent Corrugated Converters meeting in San Francisco.

SYDNEY, New South Wales, Australia - 12th January 2004 - the continuing climb of the Australian dollar and the subsequent positive impact on the US-Australian exchange rate, has enabled National Instruments Oceania to reduce prices on all product lines by 10-15% in Australia and New Zealand.

ATS International BV, an implementation partner for VisualPlant in Europe, has announced that Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America (TMMNA) has licensed VisualPlant Manufacturing Intelligence Software, from EMT, for its largest North American production facility in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Sun Microsystems has scored a deal with a Chinese technology consortium to distribute its Java Desktop System to citizens of China, according to the company.

A raft of exciting new technologies in the field of Bulk Materials Handling will be exhibited at Bulkex 2004, being held from March 2-4, at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney.

Citect and Mitsubishi Electric have joined forces to deliver a powerful new suite of tightly integrated control software, which lowers customers' costs and makes deployment quick and easy.

The overall Supply Chain Planning & Collaboration (SCP&C) market exceeded US$1903 million in 2003 despite the weak macroeconomic environment over the past two years.

Intentia has announced the release of a Java version of its collaborative enterprise solution, Movex, to run on Linux, which will create hardware independence and reduced cost of IT ownership for companies.

Researchers from Newcastle University's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are collaborating with electrical and electronic equipment manufacturer Ampcontrol on a three year research project that could form the basis for an Australian industry that would not only replace imports but also generate possible exports.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has been awarded a contract to supply the complete downstream measurement and control facilities for the Sakhalin II crude oil and natural gas development project in the Sakhalin Region of the Russian Far East.

The Logistics Association of Australia (LAA) has announced that the 2003 Logistics Development Award (LDA), sponsored by CHEP Australia, has been won by Peter Bainbridge, Logistics Manager of a large Melbourne-based importer which distributes to over 1400 retail outlets within Australia and New Zealand.

ABB has successfully commissioned a major new industrial process control system (PCS) on Woodside Energy Ltd's Goodwyn A (GWA) gas production platform on the North West Shelf off Western Australia. The system is the first of its kind in Australia, namely an offshore web-enabled system with the provision to be controlled and managed remotely as well as on-site. Importantly, it also provides the foundation for Goodwyn A's PCS to continually integrate other technologies as they become available, thanks to the ABB Industrial IT open architecture.