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Tuesday, April 14, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.

Making headlines today:

State-owned supplier of bulk treated water to municipalities, Umgeni Water, planned to complete an estimated 210-million-rand upgrade at its Midmar waterworks plant, in Howick, in KwaZulu-Natal by June 2011.

The supplier issued a tender for the appointment of a service provider to conduct the design and construction supervision of the project.

Umgeni senior project manager Peter Roux said that the project would entail the upgrade of the waterworks' capacity to 375-million litres a day, up from the current 250-million litres a day.

South Africa's second largest steel producer Highveld Steel & Vanadium has unveiled a 540-million-rand black economic-empowerment transaction. The transaction will result in Umnotho weSizwe taking a 26% interest in the Mapochs mine, in Mpumalanga.

The operation produces lumpy titaniferous magnetite ore and fines for use in steelmaking by Highveld and the production of vanadium products by Vanchem. It's currently an independently managed division of Highveld.

It'll be transferred into ‘Mapochs Newco', which is being created as part of a forced disposal of certain vertically integrated vanadium assets by Highveld owner Evraz. The mine will be a subsidiary of Highveld.

Also making headlines:

The South African Reserve Bank says the credit crisis spilling over to South Africa's real economy.
The Democratic Alliance says BEE is imperative if it's correctly designed.
The Industrial Development Corporation will provide bridging finance to the automotive sector.
And, South African avionics are proposed for international aircraft upgrades.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.

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