Friday, June six, 2008.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Fatima Gabru.

Making headlines today:

The precise impact, if any, of the recent Chinese earthquake and aftershocks on the turbine orders for Eskom’s Medupi and Bravo coal-fired power stations, being built in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, respectively, is yet to be determined. But equipment supplier Alstom, which had secured orders valued at some €2,8-billion for the 12 turbine islands at the two new stations, acknowledged that two of its Chinese component suppliers might well have been affected by the quake.

Vice president for Southern Africa Didier Farez told Engineering News Online in a telephone interview that it had already notified Eskom of a potential impact, but said that it was “impossible”, at this stage, to anticipate whether the two factories had been affected to the point where orders might be delayed.



Poor African farmers can boost export revenues from agriculture by billions of dollars if they use intellectual property as part of their business plans, a report released at the World Economic Forum said on Thursday.

The report by Washington-based non-profit organisation Light Years IP and supported by Britain's Department for International Development, focuses on the potential of intellectual property to raise income for low earning producers in sub-Saharan Africa.

"In the course of doing this study, we came to realise that across 14 products there could be an average increase of 230 to 350 percent in the income that could come back to the developing countries," Ron Layton, CEO of Light Years IP told reporters.

Among the products researched were Kenyan tea, Sudanese cotton, Ethiopian fine coffee, Malian mudcloth and Ethiopian leather.


The platinum price will not beat the new record high it hit in March by the end of the year, if South African supply does not suffer further setbacks, Impala Platinum CEO David Brown said on Thursday.

While the current high prices for the white metal allowed miners the short-term benefit of higher profits, they were bad news in the long term, as this “heightened the incentive to substitute”, he added.

The price of platinum, mainly used in devices that reduce emissions from diesel engines, scaled a new peak of $2 290/oz on March 4, following supply fears around the South African power crisis, which shut mines in the country for five days in January.


Also making headlines:

Eskom CEO warns that SA power grid is vulnerable going into winter
South Africa is one step closer to a formal climate change policy
Business confidence continues on a downward trend
Gold Fields says Beatrix mine's production impacted by industrial action
BHP lifts Australian coking coal force majeure
And, Implats in talks with Eskom to secure more power for its growth projects.

In political news:

Zimbabwe suspends aid groups and detains diplomats
Rows threaten world food summit success
The US and EU warn that Doha trade talks risk failure
SA concludes economic talks with Spain
And, African NGOs urge a regional arms freeze on Zimbabwe.

That’s a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit engineeringnews.co.za, miningweekly.com and polity.org.za