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Wednesday, June 10, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

JSE-listed forest products producer York Timber said that it might shut three of its eight processing plants, with two being permanently shut. This was part of a series of remedial actions designed to take account of difficult economic conditions.

CEO Piet van Zyl said that the closure could affect 500 of its 3 500 employees. However, it was in consultation with its unions in order to minimise retrenchments.

He said that it was also working with one of its key shareholders, the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation, on a range of re-skilling and retraining programmes for those workers that could be affected.

The company, which is based in Sabie, Mpumalanga province, is South Africa's largest vertically integrated solid wood products company, converting logs into sawn timber and plywood for the building, construction, infrastructure, furniture and packaging markets.

On Wednesday, the board at State-owned transport utility Transnet insisted that it was "united on the succession process" of its new CEO, and denied a media report alleging division over the matter.

The article suggested that some in the board wanted acting CEO Chris Wells to be retained on a full-time basis, while others were punting for Siyabonga Gama, the current head of Transnet Freight Rail.

The process to select a successor for Maria Ramos, who took up the position of CEO of banking group Absa in March, has been a protracted one and had to be relaunched earlier this year after the unanimously recommended candidature withdrew his name.

It has been reported, but never officially confirmed, that Pravin Gordhan, who was subsequently appointed Finance Minister by President Jacob Zuma, was the candidate in question.

In a statement issued by chairperson Fred Phaswana, the group said that the outcome of the relaunched process would be "announced at the appropriate time". However, no timeframe was provided.

Also making headlines:

An environmental study for the new PetroSA refinery will start in September.
Fiat closes in on the Chrysler deal.
The Airbus search is set to go deeper as more bodies are recovered.
And, regulatory certainty is needed for global oil firms to invest in South Africa.

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