Wednesday, February 3, 2010.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines today:

Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation is expanding the massive recall of some of its vehicles to include South Africa.

Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) spokesperson Leo Kok says that the recall process started in the US, and was aimed at correcting accelerator pedals on vehicles that might, "under very rare circumstances, be harder to depress, slow to return to the idle position, or remain open in a partially depressed position".

He says that TSAM can't yet pinpoint which models and model years could be affected. However, looking at global reports, and considering that the local recall could include the same vehicles as in the US and Europe, the Auris, Verso and RAV4 models could be affected.

Diversified miner Rio Tinto on Tuesday criticised South Africa for withdrawing the Coega aluminium smelter agreement.

Rio Tinto CE for diamonds and minerals, Harry Kenyon-Slaney, said that South Africa's cancellation of the electricity agreement wasn't condusive to attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).

The recent cancellation of the electricity agreement with Eskom led to the cancellation of the project, which Kenyon-Slaney said won't induce foreign direct investment into South Africa.

He said that electricity supply was an "absolutely critical" issue for Africa and Eskom's proposed electricity-tariff increases would have a negative impact.

Also making headlines:

Foreign direct investment into emerging markets is expected to rebound in 2010.
New car sales for January beat expectations, but the truck market is still depressed.
Ford expects to return to profitability in 2010 on a pre-tax basis.
And, Tanzania expects to finish building a $300-million fibre-optic network in June.

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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