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Tuesday, May 12, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

Tokyo Sexwale is expected to resign as executive chairperson of the Mvelaphanda Group, following his appointment as Minister of Human Settlements.

However, an official announcement regarding the minister's business interests and all his companies will only be made later this week once he has consulted his lawyers on the way forward.

Sexwale founded Mvelaphanda Holdings, a company primarily focused on the mining and energy sectors, after leaving the public sector as Premier of Gauteng.

He also serves on the board of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee.

On Tuesday, cement producer Pretoria Portland Cement CEO John Gomersall said that industry regional cement demand wouldn't decline by more than about 10% in the period to end September. This was despite the after effects of the global economic crisis continuing to spill over onto South Africa's economy.

Gomersall said that regional industry cement demand had been down 7,5%. However, he said that PPC had performed slightly better, with demand being down only 6% in the six months ended March 31, 2009.

This reflected that the producer had more volume available. He said that it had also benefited from its involvement with the supply of cement to large infrastructural projects, such as the Gautrain rapid-rail link, where it was one of the largest suppliers of cement.

Further, it had in the six months supplied about 50 000 t of cement to Eskom's Medupi coal-fired power station project and the surrounding Lephalale area.

Also making headlines:

Global steelmaker ArcelorMittal sees 2009 demand down 15 to 20%.
South Africa's new Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says the country will avoid over-borrowing.
Eskom completes its Cape gas-turbine expansions, but Medupi is behind schedule.
And, Airbus says there's no real weight problem on the A400M.

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