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From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shona Kohler.
Making headlines today:
Petrochemicals giant Sasol will spend R70-billion in capital expenditure in the three years to 2011. CFO Christine Ramon said, at the group’s year-end financial results on Monday, that 40% of this expenditure has already been approved.
Some of the bigger items benefiting from this spend will be the Secunda growth project, the Sasol Wax exansion, and the offshore drilling that the group is undertaking in Mozambique. Money will also be spent on feasibility studies for developments such as Project Mafutha, and Sasol has confirmed that its project pipeline is progressing well.
The group expects its capex to ramp up from about R16-billion in the 2009 financial year, to about R30-billion in the 2011 financial year, with just over 60% of its capex to take place in the Southern African region.
Construction group Aveng reports strong performance for the year ended June 30, 2008, despite weakening global economic growth.
Group CEO Roger Jardine explained, during a presentation in Johannesburg on Monday, that the company expects performance to remain strong on the back of sustained investment in the power, roads and transport sectors in South Africa and Africa.
The group is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the tender for Eskom’s Nuclear 1 project, for which it tendered as part of a consortium. Eskom is expected to make an announcement in this regard in mid-September.
Diversified miner Exxaro is hoping to export 26-million tons of coal a year from the Waterberg region in South Africa.
The project already has a rail allocation of four-million tons and an export allocation of 1,3-million tons at the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, and Exxaro is set to increase its RBCT allocation to 6,3-million tons this year.
However, the company requires more than double its current export allocation to reach its export goals, and is looking at the possibility of using other ports for export purposes. The challenge lies in the fact that there is no existing railway to these ports, and construction would cost between R30-million and R40-milliion a kilometre.
Also making headlines:
Sasol mulls upstream M&A activity Eskom says its dependence on short-term coal supplies is to increase Competition watchdog blocks steel mergers on collusion concerns Mvela Resources denies talks with Aquarius and Lonmin RBCT considers a phase 6 expansion despite rail capacity concerns And, Sallies is expected to widen its financial year loss
In political news:
Mbeki in new push to end Zimbabwe stalemate Zapiro defends Zuma cartoon Russia agrees to withdraw troops from Georgia And, Niehaus warns of ‘disturbing’ ANC trend
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