• Dr.Ing Jürgen Brandes has been appointed head of Siemens` Large Drives Division, succeeding Dr.-Ing Ulrich Feldmann, who has retired. Manfred Egelwisse is the new head of Siemens Mechanical Drives operation, replacing Dr Winfried Walzer. Egelwisse will also succeed Walzer as chief executive of Flender, which Siemens bought last year.

• Following Schneider Electric`s purchase of Crydom solid-state relays, Crydom`s original founders have formed a new business, Cynergy3 Components to sell power semiconductors and modules, high-voltage and reed relays, and liquid level sensors. The Californian business has a UK operation in Wimborne, Dorset.

• FKI has sold Babcock Bristol to Emerson Electric for $121m. The US-based business makes products such as remote terminals, transmitters and distributed process controllers, mainly for the oil, gas, power and water industries.

• The global market for escalator and lift products and services is forecast to grow by 5.6% a year to 2009, by when it will be worth more than $50bn. The market analyst Freedonia predicts that almost half of the new installations will be in China. In 2009, around 440,000 lifts will be sold globally, 60% of them not having traditional machine rooms.