Coins Co. signed an investment agreement with Yeosu city to build a factory on a 9,900 m2 site in the Yulchon 1 industrial complex, producing synthetic pigs and pipe-inspection robots, for 7 billion won, with work planned from January to December 2020 and 15 hires.

Shorehill Capital acquired an ownership interest in Triad Technologies, a Vandalia, Ohio distributor of industrial fluid power and automation products, alongside management and the Wissman family; terms were not disclosed.

Honeywell will design and deliver the Integrated Control and Safety System for BP's offshore compression platform off Trinidad and Tobago's southeast coast, acting as main automation contractor. The announcement was made on 21 November 2019.

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company selected Honeywell Process Solutions as main automation contractor for the PRIZe petrochemicals and refinery integration project at Al Zour, providing front-end engineering design and advanced process control technology. The announcement was made on 12 November 2019.

Krohne and Samson started FOCUS-ON, an equal joint venture registered in Dordrecht, Netherlands, to develop, market and produce autonomous actuators for the process industry. The announcement was dated 30 October 2019.

ATS subsidiary Comecer S.p.A. received a CAD 32 million order booking from a leading global pharmaceutical company for a turnkey automated pharmaceutical assembly and filling line, to be delivered over two years.

L&T Valves Arabia, a subsidiary of L&T Valves, is setting up a manufacturing facility in the Eastern Province near Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The plant is scheduled to start production in October 2019 and will make the full valve range plus automation and digital solutions.

ABB won a multi-million-dollar order to modernize the Shymkent oil refinery in Kazakhstan for operator PetroKazakhstan Oil Products. The digital project uses ABB Ability and aims to extend maintenance turnaround intervals to three years.

Ross Controls announced it acquired Pneumatrol effective 31 July 2019, adding it to the ROSS group of companies.

KUKA supplied and configured six KR QUANTEC robots for Tricor Packaging & Logistics' corrugated board production in Bad Wörishofen, Germany, after KUKA Customer Service stepped in to complete a stalled robot system.

Thomas H. Lee Partners agreed to acquire AutoStore, a provider of cube storage systems and robotics, from EQT, which had bought the company in January 2017. AutoStore management and EQT will keep minority stakes.

Special machinery maker VWH GmbH held the ground-breaking for a new production center in the Westerwald region of Germany, adding 3,000 square metres of production space by February 2020 with a new plastics technology centre.

ENGlobal's subsidiary ENGlobal Government Services won one of three prime contractor spots on a US$124 million multiple-award contract for the Defense Logistics Agency's Automated Fuel Handling Program. The five-year contract covers fuel monitoring and control systems worldwide.

Emerson has been awarded a five-year contract by BP to provide predictive maintenance and operational support for the Clair Ridge platform and Glen Lyon FPSO in the North Sea.

Valmet will supply a containerboard making line (PM 5) with mill-wide automation and services for Papierfabrik Palm's Aalen-Neukochen mill in Germany, with start-up scheduled for 2021; the order value was not disclosed.

Genstar Capital, a private equity firm, announced the acquisition of Ohio Transmission Corporation, an industrial automation equipment distributor headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, alongside management. The deal was announced on April 9, 2019 and no value was disclosed.

Metso acquired the Valve Automation division of Rotex Manufacturers and Engineers Private Limited by acquiring all shares of RMEBS Controls Pvt. Ltd. in India to strengthen its valve network.

FLSmidth is acquiring IMP Automation Group, a provider of automated laboratory solutions for mining, including IMP's 50% stake in a joint venture. Closing is expected in Q2 2019 and terms were not disclosed.

Rockwell Automation and Schlumberger agreed to create Sensia, a joint venture offering integrated automation and measurement solutions to the oil and gas industry. The transaction is expected to close and begin serving customers in summer 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

Suntory Beverage & Food is investing £13m in Lucozade Ribena Suntory to install a new high-speed bottle filler at its Coleford, Gloucestershire factory, producing 1.3 million bottles a day.

Hartfiel Automation acquired Fiero Fluid Power, a distributor of pneumatic, automation, motion control, robotics and instrumentation products with stocking locations in Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah. The combined business will operate as Fiero Automation.

Bürkert Fluid Control Systems broke ground on 3 December 2018 for an extension at its Menden site, doubling production and office space to about 5,500 m2 within a year. The system house will grow from 52 to 80 staff over the next six to eight years.

Emerson agreed to purchase the Valves & Controls business of Pentair for $3.15 billion, strengthening its global presence in control, isolation and pressure relief valves and actuation.

Xenon Private Equity, via its Xenon Private Equity VI fund, bought 100% of Emmeti, Mectra, Sipac and Logik, creating EMS Group, a maker of palletizing, depalletizing and conveyor lines based in Italy. The deal was reported on 28 November 2018 and no value was disclosed.

Högfors opened a new valve plant in Salo, Finland, built around a Fastems flexible manufacturing system that combines Deckel Maho and Gildemeister machine tools with a Fanuc robot cell. Eight machines were relocated from the old plant and the site is ready for production of butterfly and ball valves.

Valmet was selected to supply a high-capacity containerboard machine and automation solutions for the second paper machine at Hamburger Rieger's Spremberg mill. The announcement is dated 15 November 2018.

Emerson opened a new $25 million facility in Jukjeon, Korea, to serve its Emerson Automation Solutions customers in the region.

A-T Controls acquired the assets of Mighty Instruments of Houston, Texas, according to a Valve Manufacturers Association notice dated 15 November 2018.

Emerson's Metran industrial group will build a second phase of its Chelyabinsk production complex, adding about 20,000 square meters for a total site of 50,000 square meters, with completion planned by the end of 2020. The first phase had an investment of $40 million, and the second-phase investment amount was not disclosed.

ABB received a US$79 million order from CPECC for an integrated automation, electrification and telecommunication upgrade of the Bab Onshore Field in Abu Dhabi. The report is dated 13 November 2018.

ABB was awarded a $79 million contract by China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation to provide integrated automation, electrification and telecommunications for the upgrade of Abu Dhabi's Bab Onshore Field.

Emerson, with partner Fores Engineering, signed a USD 32 million contract with Sonatrach to modernise the Alrar gas processing plant in Algeria, including control and safety systems, fire and gas systems and valves.

Sonatrach awarded Emerson Electric, in partnership with Fores Engineering, a $32 million contract to modernize the Alrar natural gas processing plant in southeast Algeria with new control and safety systems.

Metso has completed its acquisition of the valve automation division of India-based Rotex Manufacturers and Engineers, by buying all shares of RMEBS Controls Private Limited. The deal adds actuators, limit switches and process valves to Metso's valve portfolio.

Swiss instrumentation maker Endress+Hauser will build a 100,000 square foot industrial and office facility in Pearland's Lower Kirby District, employing about 110 staff for its growing US business.

Honeywell was selected to refurbish server virtualisation, process visualisation and cybersecurity technologies at Sappi Austria Produktions' paper mill in Gratkorn, Graz-Umgebung, Austria.

Novus began full operations at its new plant in the Parque Canoas de Inovação, moving 100% of its Porto Alegre operation there. The first-stage investment is R$20 million, and the factory is about three times larger than the previous one.

Lenze laid the foundation stone for its Mechatronic Competence Campus in Extertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, a roughly €50 million investment that will employ more than 800 people. Completion is planned for end 2019 with operation from early 2020.

Festo announced the acquisition of Fabco-Air, a Gainesville, Florida manufacturer of pneumatic automation components, which will continue to operate independently in Gainesville.

Emerson recently acquired AVENTICS, a manufacturer of smart pneumatic components and systems, to strengthen its fluid control and pneumatic capabilities in packaging and other automation markets.

Valmet will supply an automation and safety system, including Valmet DNA and Hima safety systems, to the new Inkoo gas compression station of the Balticconnector pipeline for Baltic Connector Oy. Start-up is scheduled for June 2019.

ProMach and its Brenton brand supplied a custom robotic case erecting and end-of-line packaging system for an unnamed major PET and HDPE plastic container manufacturer, which started up quickly after factory testing.

KUKA received an order to supply about 430 industrial robots to GAC NE, a subsidiary of GAC Group, for a new electric car production facility in Guangzhou. The order value is in the high double-digit million euro range and was booked in Q2 2018.

Process Control Solutions, a process equipment distributor and systems integrator, has acquired Durkin Equipment Co., a St. Louis provider of systems integration and process instrumentation. The acquisition was official on August 18, 2018.

Emerson has completed its purchase of Aventics, a Germany-based pneumatics and fluid control technology maker with about 2,100 employees and five manufacturing locations, expanding its automation presence in Europe.

Rotork received major contracts to supply electric and pneumatic valve actuators and gearboxes to Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery for its new refinery and petrochemicals complex at Changxing Island in Dalian, China. The latest order includes about 2,000 explosionproof electric actuators.

Servelec Controls was awarded several contracts via Costain to develop integrated control and safety systems for two new National Grid compressor stations at Huntingdon and Peterborough.

SAMSON Aktiengesellschaft acquired Israeli start-up Visual Process Ltd, adding the predictive monitoring tool SAM GUARD to its SAM DIGITAL portfolio; the transaction value is confidential.

OMRON announced it will build the second factory of OMRON (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in Shanghai to expand control equipment and industrial robot capacity, doubling its China production capacity by fiscal 2020. Total investment is JPY1.0 billion.

GE Digital and SIG, a packaging systems provider for food and beverage, announced a strategic partnership in which SIG will deploy Predix Asset Performance Management and ServiceMax across more than 400 customer factories worldwide.