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Monday, February 16, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Dennis Ndaba.

Making headlines today:

On Friday, construction and engineering firm Aveng CEO Roger Jardine vowed to eradicate collusion and unethical behaviour within the group. This was after announcing that it would pay a 46,3-million-rand administrative penalty to the Competition Commission.

The group said that it had entered into a consent agreement with the Competition Commission to settle a complaint against one of Aveng Africa's business units, Infraset. Infraset had been found by the commission to have contravened the Competition Act.

The commission confirmed that the group had admitted to participating in price fixing, market allocation and collusive tendering in the concrete pipes and culverts markets in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

Jardine explained that the penalty represented 8% of the turnover attributable to Infraset for the previous financial year, excluding the turnover for the unit's paving products.

US auto suppliers have submitted a formal request to the US Treasury for 18,5-billion-dollars in emergency funding. This is to avoid a wave of bankruptcies and a deeper crisis in the auto industry.

The request, which was submitted by two industry groups, outlined three proposals for financial relief.

The proposals say the government could guarantee supplier receivables from US automakers, accelerate payment terms or guarantee commercial loans to parts companies.

The Original Equipment Suppliers Association President Neil De Koker said that the submission includes a request for 10,5-billion-dollars in guarantees for receivables and accelerated payment terms, as well as 8-billion-dollars in direct loans.

Also making headlines:

International rating agency Standard & Poor's scrutinises the Eskom guarantee detail before making a ratings call.
The International Monetary Fund and Group of Seven industrialised countries worry about growing financing gaps in emerging markets.
Global technology group ABB's South African unit says a robust power market will help offset the slowdown.
And, Nigeria may help upgrade a hydroelectric dam in Cameroon in exchange for supplying power to a remote corner of its territory.

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