Summary
- Company winners signal serious investment in automation and quality.
- Project awards show defence-grade fabrication and heavy repair know-how.
- Safety and training categories highlight how new talent enters the trade.
Weld Australia’s 2025 NSW & ACT Welding Excellence Awards Showcase Industry Trailblazers
The 2025 NSW & ACT Welding Excellence Awards put a sharp lens on what moves our trade forward. ACT Steelworks took ACT Company of the Year (Fabrication), reflecting consistent delivery over five decades. Chess Engineering won NSW Company of the Year (Fabrication) and flagged its new 13,000 m² Leppington site with robotic, orbital and laser welding—and HyperFill dual-wire—now standard tools on its floor. Kemppi was named Supplier of the Year, recognised for technology shifts that made inverters, digital control, and workflow tools (like dWPS and WeldEye) everyday kit.
Project of the Year was shared. Halliday Engineering delivered new bow ramps for Canberra-class landing craft, working to Lloyd’s Register requirements and welding Strenx 700 with qualified procedures for strength, toughness and seal integrity. Morgan Engineering overhauled an EX8000 boom and arm: >5,000 welding hours, 120 mm section replacements, full-pen upgrades and fatigue remediation to extend service life and reduce downtime. Both jobs underscore the value of procedure development, inspection, and disciplined repair design when failure risk is high.
Skilled people made the headlines too. Young Trades Person of the Year went to Cooper Thornely, showing how VET and WorldSkills can feed real shop capability. Trades Person of the Year was Youngho Jeong at Halliday Engineering—range across steel, stainless, aluminium and exotic alloys, plus the knack for getting first-time-right welds in tough positions. Professional awards went to coordinators, inspectors and supervisors who keep compliance real on site: names like Rasoul Pouriameanesh, Oliver Hatfield and Dave Mitchell stood out. The CEO’s Award to Macfab Engineering capped the night, pointing to how mid-size fabricators scale safely while keeping quality systems tight.
Source:
Sally Wood
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