Friday, May 29, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Lindsey Berry.

Making headlines today:

On Thursday, South Africa's second-largest steel producer, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, reported that it had initiated retrenchment negotiations with its unions. It expected the process would be completed within three months. The companygave no indication as to how many jobs might be affected.

In March, Hiveld indicated that it was implementing labour restructuring and reorganisation and that it had already reduced its use of external service providers.

But it made its official retrenchment announcement in a statement to shareholders, in which the company also reported sharply lower earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.

Hiveld said that the outlook for the steel market remained uncertain. And, in stark contrast to its larger rival ArcelorMittal South Africa, Hiveld asserted that there was "no indication as yet as to whether demand will improve or whether prices will stabilise".

The first version of a draft scoping report on national oil and gas company PetroSA's proposed liquefied natural gas offloading facility at Mossel Bay, in the Western Cape, has identified three alternative locations where the facility could be constructed.

The locations identified by technical services provider Aurecon, as part of the environmental impact-assessment phase of the project, included Voorbaai and two sites at Vleesbaai. A Vleesbaai resident's organisation, the Rescue Vleesbaai Action Group, however, opposes the construction of such a facility.

PetroSA stated that a number of specialists would be tasked to investigate some aspects of the project, because the scoping report had highlighted that an LNG offloading facility and its associated infrastructure could impact on a range of biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of the environment.

Further investigations in terms of the project's impact on marine ecology, societal risks, visual impacts, noise pollution, the local socio-economy, commercial fishing and recreational activities, as well as the impact of solid waste pollution and the impact of change in water temperature, would be undertaken.

Also making headlines:

South African steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa will produce below 65% in May, following two incidents at its Corex furnace.
France re-affirms its support for South Africa's nuclear energy programme.
Construction of the critical portions of the Seacom undersea fibre optics cable is completed.
And, India may impose extra tax on steel imports.

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