In October 2004, IHI received an order from Hamersley Iron Pty. Ltd, a mining company in Perth, Western Australia, for the construction of a large gas turbine power facility (36,000kW output). The gas turbine power facility will be used to supply power for a working iron mine owned by Hamersley Iron Pty. Ltd. in Pilbara, Western Australia. In recent years the export of iron ore from Hamersley Iron has increased as the demand for steel material has risen around the world particularly in China. This introduction of the power facilities to Hamersley is to ensure that there will be enough power to deal with the increase in mining volume of the company.

IHI will be in charge of the whole project of design including civil engineering and construction planning, procurement, and building as an EPC contractor in cooperation with IHI's affiliated company in Australia, IHI Engineering Australia Pty. Ltd. The construction is due to start in April 2005 and will be completed at the end of October 2005.

In October 2004, IHI concluded the memorandum with General Electric (GE) of the US to participate as a program partner in developing the latest jet engine to be mounted on the next generation aircraft, Boeing 787.

IHI has a 15 percent share of the business and will be involved in the design, development, manufacture, and maintenance of the work according to its share. The new development is GEnX, for which GE will play a key role in development.

The engine thrust force will be in the range of 55,000 to 70,000 pounds and will be applicable to Boeing 787 planes. The aircraft is scheduled for service in 2008. This engine has also been selected as the pending for Airbus A350 aircraft.

By the development of the low-pressure turbine and the high-pressure compressor sections, using highly advanced design technology such as 3 dimensional design, etc., IHI will contribute to the realization of this next generation high performance engine.

IHI is also planning to expand the engine maintenance and component repair business, and to further enhance this technology.

The Federal Aviation Administration of the US has awarded a type certificate to the CF34-10E jet engine, which IHI participated in developing. This certificate means that the engine is formally permitted to be mounted on to an aircraft.

This new engine has been built using various advanced technologies, and has superior features ensuring low environmental impact and good energy saving. Compared with the existing engines of the same class, nitrogen oxide emission is reduces by 12% or more, and the operation costs per aircraft are expected to decrease by over 10% together with the improvement of the total design of the aircraft.

Embraer Company S. A. (Brazil) will use CF34-10E engines exclusively for the Embraer 190 and Embraer 195, which are 90 to 118 seat civil air transports currently under development. This class of aircraft, called Regional Jetcraft, will meet demand for mainly short transfers between medium or small cities. The number of plans to introduce Regional Jetcraft has rapidly increased in the markets centered on Europe and the US.