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Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

An outbreak of swine flu has dampened tentative hopes for the global economy. Analysts fear that a possible pandemic could prolong the downturn and force countries further into recession.

Policymakers had begun to suggest the global downturn was slowing after some companies reported better-than-expected results and data suggested a return of consumer confidence.

ING analysts said in a note that it may be that this swine flu doesn't tip the human fear scale sufficiently to result in substantial economic/market damage. However, if it did, with the economy already in tatters, the results could be catastrophic.

Stock markets fell in Asia and Europe as investors feared a further shock to a still fragile global economy.

China's steel makers and global miners have agreed to cut term iron ore prices sharply. But, they are still locked in talks on the scope of the price cuts. Luo Bingsheng, deputy head of the China Iron and Steel Association said that parties had agreed to cut iron prices for supplies under the new annual deal.

He added that Chinese ports had in stock 70-million tons of imported iron ore currently, compared with normal warehouse inventories of 30-million tons.

Luo also said that CISA had suggested taking measures to control production in Chinese small- and medium-sized steel mills. This was as China's crude steel output had exceeded demand in the first quarter due to rapid production increases in spite of production cuts at major steel mills.

Also making headlines:

Global steel demand may fall 15% this year.
The global crisis has hit African countries harder than initially expected and the continent will lag the rest of the world in recovery.
Analysts say that the purchase of the Bayside aluminium smelter by Hulamin is unlikely.
And, Angola will invest over 8-billion-dollars to diversify its economy.

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