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Monday, September 21, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

China North Vehicle Corporation Limited, or Norinco Motors, looks set to be the first Chinese company to operate a vehicle assembly plant in South Africa.

This comes as the JSE-listed Super Group is in the process of selling its commercial vehicle business, housed in the loss-making Super Group Industrial Products division, to Norinco Motors, says Super Group CEO Peter Mountford.

The parties have signed a letter of intent in terms of which Norinco Motors will, with Super Group, establish a new Commercial Vehicle Assembly and Distribution Entity, or CVADE.

In terms of the proposed arrangement, Super Group will contribute certain assets - such as the land and buildings comprising the existing assembly plant in Pietermaritzburg - to CVADE, in exchange for an up to 30% equity interest in the business.

Norinco Motors will hold at least a 70% equity interest in the business.

The South African National Roads Agency Limited has announced that it's awarded a 1,16-billion-rand contract to the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) joint venture for the implementation and operation of a multilane free-flow tolling system in Gauteng.

The system, also referred to as open-road tolling (ORT), would be installed by ETC over a period of 18 months and was scheduled to go live in April 2011.

The ORT implementation is part of the larger multibillion rand Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, the first phase of which involves the upgrading of 185-kilometres of freeways in Gauteng. The motorways currently being upgraded as part of the current phase include sections of the N1, N3, N12 and R21.

Sanral is investing more than 12-billion-rand in the first phase. For the second phase, the Department of Transport plans to invest 20-billion-rand, while 23-billion-rand will be invested for the final phase.

Also making headlines:

South Africa's Transnet paid a consortium 62-million rand to settle a dispute over the logistics firm's sale of its shares in mobile phone group MTN.
General Motors vice-president Nick Reilly says that component suppliers need more government support.
The IMF chief sees a global recovery in the first half of 2010.
And, about 200 MW of electricity could potentially be generated from biogas-from-waste projects around the country.

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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