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Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

South African power utility Eskom will continue pursuing an aggressive planning and development schedule in 2009. This is for a third new-generation coal-fired power station as well as other base-load projects, including nuclear. This is despite a marked slowdown in demand.

But chief officer for generation, Brian Dames, said that it was also prioritising the independent power producer programme as part of a plan to close future supply-side gaps, while spreading project and funding risk beyond Eskom's balance sheet.

All projects under construction will be pursued in line with previously agreed schedules. Only the Nuclear-1 and the Tubatse pumped storage project are being reviewed.

On Tuesday, South African construction firm Murray & Roberts confirmed that a second contract in the Middle East had been scrapped.

The JSE-listed company said Sama Dubai had terminated a resort project in Bahrain, where M&R partnered with Nass Corporation.

The company said that market conditions in sectors of the Middle East had become volatile as a result of the worsening global financial crisis.

The group didn't expect the cancellation of the Bahrain contract to have any material impact on the financial results for the 2009 financial year. M&R said it would publish full details of its order book when it releases its interim results.

Also making headlines:

South African truck sales are expected to slowdown even further in 2009.
Auto manufacturers Fiat and Chrysler, and Cerberus Capital Management form a global alliance.
Nissan Diesel South Africa says truck prices could jump 10 to12% in 2009.
And, Cabinet appoints a CEO for the new Housing Development Agency.

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