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Friday, December 12, 2008.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Darren Parker.

Making headlines today:

On Thursday, PetroSA CEO Sipho Mkhize said that South Africa's national oil and gas company had placed its coal-to-liquids project on hold.

The project has been delayed to allow time to further investigate issues such as water availability, carbon sequestration and other infrastructure needs.

The 80 000 barrel a day CTL plant was expected to start contributing to South Africa's energy supply pool by about 2020.

However, PetroSA acting head of corporate communications, Thabo Mabaso, said that the project could possibly only be restarted "a number of years" down the line.

PetroSA's other refining project, a 400 000 barrel a day crude oil refinery, at Coega, was on track. It was finally awarded the contract for an engineering partner on Monday.

Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa has confirmed that it would cut about 1 000 contractor jobs. This in line with its announcement in November that it would terminate temporary labour contracts.

Spokesperson Sven Lünsche said the company employed about 2 500 contract workers. He said no permanent jobs had been terminated.

In November, ArcelorMittal South Africa cut its production by 30% to ensure that permanent job losses were avoided.

Also making headlines:

Construction companies Murray & Roberts and Aveng are taken off the JSE's Top 40 Index.
The South African Reserve Bank cuts the repo rate by 50 basis points to 11,5%.
Construction group WBHO says its earnings a share could double in the first half of the 2009 financial year.
And, South Africa's Sappi cuts its European fine paper output by 20%.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. Creamer Media would like to wish its podcast listeners a happy festive season and a prosperous 2009. We'll resume podcasts in the New Year.

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