DMG Mori AG and Heitec AG have formed a joint venture named DMG Mori Heitec, based in Erlangen, Germany, to expand automation expertise. The venture will develop modular automation solutions and digital twins for machine tools.

FOMAS Inc., a custom manufacturer of seamless rolled rings, is investing $2.5 million to expand its York County, South Carolina operations, increasing machining capacity by 10% and remodeling the facility. The expansion is expected to create 10 or more jobs.

Central Machinery Company, DBA CenMac Metalworks, plans a 30,000-square-foot expansion of its facility in Marion, Ohio, investing more than $8.6 million and creating 55 jobs.

Siemens control technology, including S120 and 1F7 motors and S7-1500 controllers, has been specified as the first-choice control solution on a new range of coating machines developed by Emerson & Renwick Ltd as part of a modular production platform.

WEG's new production facility in Santo Tirso, Portugal is operating after an investment of more than €30 million. The plant is its second in Portugal.

Leggett & Platt acquired Precision Hydraulic Cylinders (PHC) in January 2018. PHC manufactures hydraulic cylinders for construction and materials handling equipment.

Lufthansa Technik's Engine Services division in Hamburg opened a new competence centre for engine case repair and an X-ray centre, investing around €7 million to prepare for future engine types and growing business.

Riri Group acquired 100% of MR Plating SA, a Swiss galvanic treatment company, and SPM Pressofusione S.r.l., an Italian Zamak die-casting company, to strengthen its supply chain.

GF Automotive, a division of GF, agreed to purchase 100% of Precicast Industrial Holding SA, a Swiss precision casting specialist. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2018, and GF Automotive will be renamed GF Casting Solutions.

Komatsu Ltd. signed an agreement to acquire the Quadco and Southstar forestry attachment operations from Prenbec Equipment Inc. of Quebec, Canada, to expand its forestry attachment business.

Russian crane rental company TOPKRAN placed an order with Liebherr for mobile and crawler cranes worth EUR 42 million, including telescopic and lattice boom cranes with capacities from 220 to 1350 tonnes.

GWS Tool Group, LLC acquired Alliance CNC Cutter Grinding Services, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of tight tolerance drills, reamers, and micro-tools. Alliance CNC will continue operating from its facility in the Grand Rapids area.

NETZSCH, a manufacturer of pumping technologies, purchased a Zenith 400 helical profile grinding machine from Holroyd Precision. The machine will be installed at NETZSCH's facility in Brazil in early 2018 to produce pump screws.

Iggesund UK is renewing its finishing area at the Workington mill by ordering two KB2300 board sheeters from Pasaban to replace old equipment. The new sheeters will process folding box board for high-quality packaging applications.

CPM Acquisition Corporation acquired Nanjing Ruiya Polymer Processing Equipment Co., Ltd. in Nanjing, China, to expand its portfolio of compounding extrusion technologies and extend its global solution network in Asia.

LiuGong India announced an additional investment of $5 million to enhance production capacity at its factory in Pithampur, India, as part of its 15th anniversary in India and 10th anniversary of the plant. Manpower is expected to increase by 40% over 2-3 years.

Metso commissioned a new, faster assembly line at its factory in Tampere, Finland.

CenMac Metalworks (Central Machinery Company LLC) announced plans to expand its facility in Marion, Ohio, adding 30,000 square feet and investing more than $8.6 million. The expansion will create 55 new jobs, with hiring beginning in Q3 2018.

The Tuscany regional government and Italy's Ministry of Economic Development signed a EUR 65 million addendum funding Baker Hughes' Galileo R&D program, including a new axial compressor platform for NovaLT gas turbines and digital solutions, carried out through Nuovo Pignone in Tuscany. The signing took place on January 29, 2018 in Florence.

TMC Compressors won a contract from Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding to supply a marine compressed air system, including four 400 kW service air compressors, for a newbuild FPSO being built for SBM Offshore. The contract value was not disclosed. The article is dated January 28, 2018.

The Power Farming Group (PFG) has completed an agreement to become the exclusive distributor of Deutz-Fahr tractors in the United States. PFG America will be headquartered in Atlanta with satellite operations in California.

Tamrotor Marine Compressors (TMC) won an undisclosed-value contract from Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding to supply a compressed air system for a FPSO being built in Shanghai for SBM Offshore.

Endress+Hauser has opened a 16,500-square-meter third plant in Suzhou Industrial Park, west of Shanghai, for about EUR 44 million. The facility adds capacity for flow measurement, liquid analysis and temperature measurement, and includes a large calibration facility.

Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp., U.S.A. received a nearly $4 billion contract from the New York Metro Transit Authority to build 1,500 railway cars at its Lincoln, Nebraska plant. Early production starts in 2019, with mass production in 2021.

Lectra, a technology partner for fabric and leather industries, announced the acquisition of Italian software company Kubix Lab for a maximum of €7 million. Kubix Lab's Link platform manages product information for fashion brands.

Ube Machinery announced the expansion of its injection molding machine assembly plant at its U.S. subsidiary UMI in Michigan, doubling annual production capacity of large machines. Construction is scheduled from July 2018 to May 2019.

Winz Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new production facility in Werneuchen, Brandenburg, with an investment of nearly EUR 1.4 million, supported by EUR 556,000 in state funding. Completion is expected by summer 2019.

Canadian rotating equipment services company Blackstone Industrial Services has closed its acquisition of Nuovo Parts Inc., a North American distributor of Nuovo Pignone and GE spare parts, based in Surrey, B.C. The deal was announced on January 26, 2018.

Valmet will supply a multifuel CYMIC circulating fluidized bed boiler and a flue gas treatment plant to Oulun Energia's new 75 MW biopower plant in Laanila, Oulu, replacing the Toppila unit I. The orders, worth around EUR 70 million, will be included in Valmet's Q1 2018 orders.

Zoomlion Heavy Industry signed an investment framework agreement to build an environmental industry intelligent manufacturing plant in Changsha high-tech zone, with an investment of 3 billion yuan.

Würth Baer Supply Co., a division of Würth Craft Line North America, completed the acquisition of Akins Machinery Inc., a SCM Group dealer and service center in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

Honeywell's UOP Russell business will provide Brazos Midstream with a third cryogenic gas processing plant, Comanche III, for the Southern Delaware Basin in Texas. The 200 MMcf/d plant will extract natural gas liquids and includes engineering, fabrication and a modular NGL recovery unit.

Weerg.com ordered six new Hermle C42U CNC machining centers from Hermle Italy, to be installed by June 2018 at its production site in Marghera, Italy, with the first three arriving in May.

RC Engineering Turkey purchased a 26-meter long Uniport 6000 5-axis machining center from Unisign for the production of train components.

NiSource Midstream Services completed a compressor upgrade at its Majorsville compressor station in Dallas, West Virginia, replacing four vintage compressors with four CAT 3606 engines and Ariel JGC4 compressors. The upgrade adds 1,800 horsepower and raises throughput by 70-80 million cubic feet per day.

Ariel Corporation was awarded a contract by Rover Pipeline LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, to supply 39 natural gas compressors for the $4.2 billion Rover natural gas pipeline. The contract is estimated at more than $34 million.

Geringhoff Corp. will invest $520,000 to add a second factory assembly line and 20 new jobs at its St. Cloud, Minnesota facility, expanding production of combine headers and starting manufacture of headers for small grains.

Brown Machine Group merged with Freeman Co., a manufacturer of thermoform tooling for the food packaging industry. The transaction was effective January 5, 2018.

JCB announced that production of its new range of site dumpers is underway at Rocester, Staffordshire. The move will create 70 new jobs in the next 12 months. The range includes the innovative 7T-1 Front Tip Hi-Viz model.

Bogoslovsky Cable Plant (BKZ) will launch a new workshop for innovative cables for the petrochemical industry by the end of 2018. Investment in the workshop is about 400 million rubles, and 65 new jobs will be created.

The Brandt Group of Companies purchased a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, from Kongskilde Industries A/S, marking its first manufacturing venture in the United States.

Engineering firm Lontra has committed to build a manufacturing facility in Warwickshire, UK, for its Blade industrial compressors, investing £65m by 2021 across this and a further site, backed by Shield Group Engineering, with 75 jobs to be created by 2020 and the first part opening later in 2018.

Deutsche Aircraft inaugurated its Final Assembly Line at Leipzig/Halle Airport for the D328eco regional aircraft, with a EUR100M investment, 60,500m² footprint, annual capacity of up to 48 aircraft, and creation of about 250 new jobs.

Biomashinostroene, a Bulgarian manufacturer of heat exchangers and vessels for the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries, announced a six-year EUR 10 million investment program to double production and revenue. The program includes building a new plant on 32 decares of land near Plovdiv and purchasing new metalworking machines.

Diamon-Fusion International announced that Quality Enclosures will use its FuseCube glass coating machine to apply Diamon-Fusion protective coating to shower doors at its facility in Port Orange, Florida.

Martin Instrument and Western Data Systems completed a merger to create AllTerra Central, a Trimble solutions provider for surveying and construction markets in Texas and Oklahoma.

Sumitomo Machinery Corporation of America (SMA) will invest $10 million to add 100,000 square feet to its North American headquarters in Chesapeake, Virginia. The project will retain 20 jobs and create 26 new jobs.

Felling Trailers, Inc. has completed a new state-of-the-art Fabrication Center designed to increase manufacturing efficiencies and improve workflow. The facility was built in just under a year and includes new technologies and equipment.

Wittmann Group expanded facilities in Mosonmagyaróvár (Hungary), Vienna (Austria), Nuremberg (Germany) and Písek (Czech Republic) to meet record demand for robots, shipping 5000 robots in 2017. The automation department of its Indian subsidiary was also extended.

Plastech Beteiligungs GmbH acquired a 74.9% majority stake in Kautex Maschinenbau Group, replacing previous investor capiton AG. The Kautex management team remains significantly involved.