African Review of Business and Technology articles from July 2007

African Review of Business and Technology archives from July 2007

Editor's note.
July 1, 2007... OVER THE LAST 10 years Sudan's oil sector has achieved stunning results. and the nation now ranks as the third largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa, writes Moin Siddiqi. And oil is not the only lure for investors: gold, minerals timber and...

The challenge of investing in SMEs.(Commercial Review)
July 1, 2007... MANY INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS are keen to invest in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, but don't know where to start looking for companies with solid track records and good financial controls. NGOs and private equity firms...

Stock markets urged to end e-delays.(Commercial Review)
July 1, 2007... THE CURRENT AFRICA focus by international investors could end in tears for stock markets that fail to plug into the electronic systems. The e-alert comes from Imara, the Botswana-registered financial services group. Last year the group...

Nigeria/UK trade up.(Commercial Review)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... NIGERIA'S TOTAL TRADE with the UK in the first quarter stood at [pounds sterling]234. 1 mn (N585,000mn) a 4,5-point increase on the 2006/Q1 level due to a significant increase in imports. A slightly smaller drop in UK purchases, nearly all of...

Growth in SSA at highest for 35 years.(Commercial Review)(Sub-Saharan Africa)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... ECONOMIC GROWTH IN SSA is likely to reach 6.8 per cent this year, while output in the region's ten oil exporters is expected to hit double digits (and no less than 35 per cent in Angola). The IMF's April 2007 World Economic Outlook expects...

Actis, a leading.(investments to Diamond Bank Plc)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... ACTIS, A LEADING private equity investor in emerging markets, has led a US$134mn investment into Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria's leading banks. The investment provides additional capital to the bank for its growth plans and gives Actis a...

The African development.
July 1, 2007... THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT Bank (ADB) has made what is considered by Nigerian investment analysts to be an historical move, by investing US$50mn equity in the United Bank for Africa, a leading Nigerian bank. The continental bank said it...

The Gaborone-registered.(Imara)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... THE GABORONE-REGISTERED Imara financial services group has announced that its Imara Global Fund has been registered by the Bank of Botswana and can now be marketed to institutions and professional investors within Botswana. The fund was...

China will invest.
July 1, 2007... CHINA WILL INVEST an additional US$300mn in Zambia's mining and manufacturing industries. This was announced recently by the minister of commerce and trade, Felix Mutali, who said the money was in addition to the US$900mn pledged by China to...

The Kenya Government.(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... THE KENYA GOVERNMENT has allocated Ksh 1 bn to The East Africa Marine System (TEAMS) optical fibre project. The project aims to boost regional communication infrastructure by laying an optical cable from Furaijah in the Gulf to Mombasa. The...

Data from UNCTAD.(Commercial Review)(United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... UNCTAD REPORTS FROM Geneva on the launch of further Automated System for Customs Data projects in Africa. The complete system went 'live' in the Central African Republic, Guinea and Nigeria last year and new ASYCUDA++ (the official...

Boost for Bottling.(Commercial Review)
July 1, 2007... A LEADING WATER/waste treatment solutions provider in South Africa has completed two projects for Nigerian Bottling Co. NBC is a part of Greek CC HBC, the world's second largest bottler of Coca-Cola drinks. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

India seeks more African business.(Commercial Review)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... INDIAN BUSINESSMEN WANT to invest in more than 30 sub-Saharan countries. Areas being targeted right now include agro processing, ICT, renewable energy and healthcare products. Talks held back in 2005 resulted in US$312mn of business already...

Reuters, the Global.
July 1, 2007... REUTERS, THE GLOBAL news and information company, has announced a major advertising deal with pan-Africa bank Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI). Under the three-year deal, Ecobank advertisements went live on the site from 14 June....

Bateman engineering.(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... BATEMAN ENGINEERING HAS announced the signing of a US$59mn contract with Blue Ridge Platinum (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Ridge Mining plc, to design and construct a platinum concentrator, for its Blue Ridge project in South Africa. The LSTK...

BP is moving.
July 1, 2007... BP IS MOVING towards the development of its large Raven gas discovery, offshore in the western part of the Nile delta. Industry sources say its recent appraisal well at the field gave good results. Raven is a technically demanding...

The Nigerian Government.(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT has created two autonomous units out of the current Nigerian Ports Authority - one for the ports and the other for the harbours. The two bodies are expected to manage, operate and develop ports and harbours in order to...

G8 leaders face criticism despite US$60bn pledge to fight disease.(Commercial Review)
July 1, 2007... G8 LEADERS CLOSED their annual summit with US$60bn in pledges to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. But the move did little to stem criticism of the world's leading industrialised nations for failing to honour promises made two years ago...

Executives' calender.(Business Travel)(Calendar)
July 1, 2007... Executives' Calender JULY 15-17 Africa's Big Seven MIDRAND Pan Africa Retail Trade Exhibition; Retail Solutions Africa; IFMA Africa; Agr-Food; FoodTech Africa; Interbake ...

Fly540 adds two turbo props to fleet.(Business Travel)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... LONRHO HAS ANNOUNCED that Fly540, the low-cost airline based in Nairobi, in which it holds a 49 per cent interest, is expanding its fleet with two additional aircraft. Two Dash 8-100 turbo props have just arrived and significantly increase...

Sunbird Hotels celebrates.(Business Travel)
July 1, 2007... MALAWI'S LARGEST GROUP of hotels, hitherto managed by international companies such as Le Meridien, are now being managed by their Malawian owners, Sunbird Hotels. At its launch party in the Sunbird Capital Hotel, it was emphasised that the...

Self-catering popular in Kenya.(Business Travel)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... SHORTAGE OF HOTEL beds for tourists in Kenya has prompted innovative investors at the coastal city of Mombasa to develop executive apartments catering for the needs of the rich clientele. As Mwangi Mumero writes, the apartments cater for...

A new domestic.(Lagos Murtala Mohammed airport)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... A NEW DOMESTIC terminal has been opened at Lagos Murtala Mohammed airport. Alex van Elk, the managing director of the terminal said: "The standard at the terminal compares with any of the highly rated airports in the world". The arrival and...

South African Airways (SAA).
July 1, 2007... SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS (SAA), has announced new, lower and more flexible fares for the North American traveller. The new fares make it easier for travellers to access flights from more than 30 cities in the US to more than 25 destinations in...

Ulendo safaris has launched an on-line booking service for flights.
July 1, 2007... ULENDO SAFARIS HAS launched an on-line booking service for flights. Called Epower it's a first for southern Africa and can be accesed at: www.ulendo.net/epoweronline.htm. At present there are special fares from British Airways and South...

Mixed trends for Kenyan tea.(Commodity Report)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... OVER THE PAST month, Kenya tea prices initially moved higher again on the levels seen in previous weeks before showing more mixed trends. In the late May and early June auctions in Mombasa, Kenyan tea prices moved up sharply in response to...

Robusta moves up.(Commodity Report)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... ROBUSTA COFFEE FUTURES on the London International Financial Futures Exchange have continued to move higher over the past month on the back of tight supplies -coupled with speculative buying. LIFFE's second position contract September...

Pressure on gold.(Commodity Report)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... GOLD HAS STRUGGLED to maintain momentum since it failed to bridge the US$700 a troy ounce level in mid-April, and has come under further pressure during the past month as a stronger dollar has weighed on sentiment. But, the recent declines...

Fears of production disruptions support copper.(Commodity Report)
July 1, 2007... RENEWED WORRIES ABOUT supply disruptions and low and declining inventory levels over the past month for the time at least being have helped offset concerns about lower import buying by China. In May, Peruvian miners staged a nationwide strike...

London cocoa reaches four-year high.(Commodity Report)
July 1, 2007... BOLSTERED IN RECENT weeks by limited supplies and concerns that unusually dry weather in West Africa, the world's largest producing region, will result in lower yields, LIFFE cocoa futures have moved higher in June. By mid-month, the...

Supply problems underpin platinum.(Commodity Report)(Anglo Platinum)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... IN CONTRAST TO gold, supply problems have kept platinum firmly underpinned in recent weeks. The world's biggest platinum producer Anglo Platinum said on 18 June that it would suspend underground production at Rustenburg for about seven days...

Equatorial Guinea joins the LNG exporters.(Oil News)
July 1, 2007... THE WORLD'S STILL-select group of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters gained a new member when Equatorial Guinea loaded the first cargo from its complex at Punta Europa, near Malabo on Bioko island. US firm Marathon, the lead company in the...

Sudan (southern).(Oil News)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... ACCORDING TO THE small UK firm, White Nile, talks are being held to resolve the dispute over the ownership of Block Ba--awarded by the northern government to Total and by the southern government to White Nile. White Nile says a group will be...

Ghana.(Oil News)
July 1, 2007... A SUBSTANTIAL OIL discovery was made offshore in June by the UK-Irish firm, Tullow. The firm said its Mahogany-1 well, drilled into a structure straddling the West Cape Three Points and Deepwater Tano blocks, found 95m of net stacked oil...

Nigeria.(Oil News)(Port Harcourt and Kaduna)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... THE BLUESTAR GROUP acquired 51 per cent interests in the refineries at Port Harcourt and Kaduna from the Bureau of Public Enterprises, which has been trying to privatise them for some years. The group is said to have paid US$561m for the...

Angola.(Oil News)
July 1, 2007... THREE OIL DISCOVERIES were made within weeks of each other in two ultra-deepwater blocks. Total made two finds in Block 32, bringing the total for the block to 10. Cominhos-1 was drilled in 1,594m of water and found oil in several zones, one...

Financial forecast.(Oil News)
July 1, 2007... Exchange Rates The currencies shown below are valued at the middle rates between buying and selling on 25 June. The rates are an indication of the value and are not intended to be used as the basis for transactions. The publisher...

No weakening in dollar indicated.(Oil News)
July 1, 2007... ONCE AGAIN THE willingness of petrodollar-rich countries to back US dollar assets, coupled with the reluctance of China to revalue its currency despite a massive current account surplus, has kept the greenback strong as commodity prices have...

Can the new head restore confidence? Former trade representative Robert Zoellick has been chosen to head the World Bank in hopes of putting to rest the controversial tenure of Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz. But what will it mean for Africa?(World Bank)
July 1, 2007... ZOELLICK IS A veteran diplomat who helped bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization and launched the Doha Round of WTO talks. He has worked on German reunification, Latin American debt relief, post-Soviet economic transition...

Namibia - a gem worth investing in: "come and join us" said the MD of a successful mining business at the special Investment Roundtable in June. "Your contribution can really make a difference". He wasn't referring to diamonds - but they are certainly making a difference.(Investment)
July 1, 2007... TWO THEMES EMERGED as central issues at the Namibia Investment Roundtable in London on 6 June, at which the keynote address was delivered by President Pohamba himself. The first was reiteration of the well-known national slogan, "A gem worth...

The two faces of an enigmatic nation: following a pre-election visit to Nigeria, our special Correspondent took stock of the nation as the presidential baton changed hands, and he found a clear dichotomy of opinion.(Nigeria)
July 1, 2007... THE AVERAGE NIGERIAN in the street is overwhelmingly negative about the previous government and many claim that life has worsened for them over the past eight years. They are more concerned about the 'epileptic' electricity supply and...

Communication resource centre opened in Kenya.(Information Technology)
July 1, 2007... THE MOBILE MARKET in Kenya has grown exponentially from 15,000 customers in 1999 to 8.79mn in March 2007, and this unprecedented growth has brought with it concerns about the quality of services caused by congestion. In response, the...

Fluorescent writing deters counterfeiting.(Information Technology)
July 1, 2007... XEROX HAS DEVELOPED a new technology that can print fluorescent words and letters without fluorescent ink, making it easier to place a high level of security on any document, from personal cheques to birth certificates. The ink can be used in...

PCs with preloaded software.(Information Technology)
July 1, 2007... TARSUS TECHNOLOGIES HAS announced a change to the software bundled with HP's portfolio of desktop and notebooks computers available in South Africa. "Where users would usually have expected an operating system (most recently Microsoft...

World's first wind and solar commercial network GSM cell site.(Information Technology)
July 1, 2007... MOTOROLA, INC HAS deployed a wind and solar power system to operate MTC Namibia's GSM cell site at Dordabis village in the Khomas region of Namibia. The trial with MTC Namibia supports the African operator's strategy for increased voice and...

Total cost of ownership.
July 1, 2007... The term total cost of ownership has been around for more than 20 years and is often used in publications on office equipment. Yet many people do not know what it really means. TCO of printers: The TCO of a printer consists of its...

Buyers' Guide 2007; Africa's annual where-to-buy guide.(TallyGenicom)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... THE DETAILS OF TallyGenicom's Agents were unfortunately omitted from the Printer Buyers' Guide in our June issue. We apologise for this oversight and publish the complete listing below. TallyGenicom Ltd Rutherford Road ...

Top performance printers usher in a new era; Those who track the printer sector are used to incremental change--more pages per minute, extended life cartridges and so on. So when the leading printer company, HP, talks of a new vision of Print 2.0, are the old certainties dead? Karen Young investigates.(Information Technology)
July 1, 2007... ACCORDING TO VYOMESH Joshi, executive VP of HP's Imaging and Printing Group, an estimated 53 trillion digital pages will be printed in 2010--an opportunity valued at more than US$296bn. Despite having the lion's share of the printing...

GSM 3G West Africa: success in Senegal.(Information Technology)
July 1, 2007... OVER 600 TELECOMMUNICATIONS professionals met at GSM 3G West Africa in Dakar, Senegal from 19-20 June to discuss strategies to maximise growth in the West Africa's telecommunications market. The event, now in its fourth year and growing...

New lasers make colour work harder.(Information Technology)
July 1, 2007... LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC has introduced the new Lexmark C530 colour laser printer series, which builds on award-winning colour technology to offer small businesses and enterprise workgroups the next generation of productivity-enhancing...

Safeguard your systems with UPS; At the heart of most small uninterruptible power supply systems is a conventional lead-acid battery pack. This deteriorates with both age and method of recharging so make sure that it is maintained exactly as the manual states - which may need dedicated software. Up-country users should check it's fresh when delivered.(Uninterruptible Power Supply)
July 1, 2007... MOST READERS HAVE had the experience of losing an hour or so's work on a word processing document. It is so easy to start a task, be called away to answer the phone or deal with a crisis and forget to save what you have created. We've all...

Report predicts rapid expansion in industrial UPS; A recent report from Frost & Sullivan* reveals that demand from the oil, gas and power sectors is driving growth in world industrial UPS markets.(Uninterruptible Power Supply)
July 1, 2007... ALTHOUGH SLOW TECHNOLOGICAL development and lack of end-user perception pose major challenges, industrial UPS markets across the world offer good potential for growth, especially with rising investments in oil and gas (O&G), power and certain...

South African UPS market appeals to international investors.(Uninterruptible Power Supply)
July 1, 2007... AS NEWS OF anticipated growth in the uninterruptible power supply market continues to spread, responsive international companies are adjusting their strategies to focus on this market. Frost & Sullivan believes that despite offering...

Manufacturers get on with the show; The commercial vehicle (CV) sector is often treated as the poor relation of the motor industry. But many CVs are to be seen at the industry's big international events. We list the best.
July 1, 2007... READERS WHO NEED to see the latest in technology have a basic choice. Either they can rely on their local general international fair--events like the annual Nairobi and Kaduna Shows--where a small selection of locally-available models from...

Iveco: a powerful presence in a vast region; Vincenzo Scardigno, the Middle East & Africa General Manager of Iveco, talks about the company's activities across this vast region.(Iveco B.V.)(Interview)
July 1, 2007... FROM MAURITANIA TO Afghanistan, to Saudi Arabia, from Greece to South Africa, this is the vast territory where Iveco has been active for many years. The company now has a presence in 73 countries through a network of 67 dealers, over 115...

Middle East & Africa dealer convention.
July 1, 2007... ON 25 MARCH, in Hammamet, Iveco held a convention for the whole of its vast Middle East & Africa network at which a presentation of its light range of vehicles was made. For the first time all the 67 dealers gathered to share common...

Light vehicle introduced to SA market.(Company Focus)(South Africa)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... THE NEW IVECO Daily has been introduced to the South Africa market, too. On 23 and 24 May, the new Daily was launched in the South Africa market at the Pezula resort, about 300m far from Cape Town, in a wonderful natural setting. ...

Transaid tackles tyre safety in Malawi and Zambia.(Company Focus)
July 1, 2007... INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY Transaid has launched a Tyre Safety Awareness Campaign in Malawi and Zambia, which commenced with a series of training courses led by Phil Rochester, a Training Manager at Michelin's office in the UK. The...

Landlocked nations look to Mozambique: with a little help from its friends, Mozambique is boosting its economy with major developments and expanding its infrastructure. One of its most important roles will be as a transport provider for its landlocked neighbours, writes James Hall.(Country Update)
July 1, 2007... GIVEN THE MULTIPLICITY and scale of these projects, the country appears to have a number of friends, or at the very least international financing bodies and investors who see value in Mozambique's growth potential. A halving of national...

Focus on customer satisfaction.(Country Update)
July 1, 2007... MULTI-TRADE SHIPPING Line, Safmarine Container Lines NV, has strengthened the company's global focus on customers with the appointment of two executives to head its newly-created Global Sales & Marketing and Global Customer Service & Service...

KPA boosts profits with help of IT.(Country Update)(Kenya. Ports Authority)(information technology)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... THE KENYA PORTS Authority (KPA) has invested Ksh2bn in information technology to improve its efficiency. The first phase of the project involved the acquisition of a systems application product (SAP) from South Africa. This helped computerise...

Intermodal Africa 2008 heads for Accra.(Country Update)
July 1, 2007... INTERMODAL AFRICA, AFRICA'S leading container ports, shipping and transport logistics exhibition and conference will next be held from 27-29 February 2008. The sixth edition of this annual event will be hosted by the Ghana Ports and...

Zimbabwe's business sector shows resilience; Ronald Watts, who has known Zimbabwe since the 1960s, reports on his impressions of a recent visit from across the border. It is ironic that despite desperate shortage businesses continue to survive.
July 1, 2007... HYPERINFLATION IS WHAT is hurting Zimbabweans most. As the author drove into town there were one or two filling stations advertising petrol at Z$17,000 a litre. That was a reduction on the previous week's price. At the airport no-one was...

Propeller design powers bigger profits: marine diesel specialists work closely with propulsion engineers. Engine and propeller should be paired up precisely to improve fuel consumption; there have been many recent improvements in both diesel and propeller design.(Marine Diesels)
July 1, 2007... A QUICK INTERNET search produced a list of more than 80 manufacturers of marine diesel engines, of every size and suited to the working day-boat right up to a five-figure freighter. Many have representatives in major ports like Apapa and...

John Deere Power Systems releases its most powerful engine.(Marine Diesels)
July 1, 2007... JOHN DEERE POWER Systems (JDPS) has released its new 12.51 marine propulsion engine. The 6125SFM75 offers 610 horsepower (455kW) and is the most powerful engine offered by John Deere. This new engine model is EPA Tier 2 emissions...

SDMO's turnover: correction.(Power News)(Correction notice)
July 1, 2007... IN THE GENERATING set feature published in the April issue, the figure given for SDMO's annual turnover on page 49 was incorrectly expressed in US dollars instead of euros. The company's turnover was in fact euro440mn, not US$460mn as...

Upsurge in orders for Yorpower.(Power News)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... WORLDWIDE DEMAND FOR generators has continued apace, and many of Yorpower's key distributors have continued to increase their own supply. Most of the major orders have focused on West Africa, including: * Over 200 generators for...

MTU South Africa links up with Angola.(Power News)
July 1, 2007... MTU HAS BEEN involved in the support of the booming Angolan economy for more than a decade. A large number of our power generation products are in daily use in all sectors--supported by Jembas, the company's very capable and knowledgeable...

Wartsila introduces power units.(Power News)
July 1, 2007... WARTSILA CORP HAS introduced PowerCubes to provide industrial customers, utilities and IPPs with small power plants based on 1-3 generating sets. They are delivered, on turnkey basis, in an economical and fast way. The Wartsila...

Perkins power for 35 more SA customers.(Continental Generators)(Barloworld Equipment Energy-Perkins)
July 1, 2007... CONTINUING ITS LONG-standing relationship with Barloworld Equipment Energy-Perkins. Hartbeesfontein-based (North West Province) genset manufacturer Continental Generators recently delivered 35 Perkins-powered sets to customers around the...

Genset operators switch to natural gas; More costly to buy but much cheaper to run--that sums up the buoyant natural gas-powered sector of the booming genset market. This first of a special two-part series looks at the key issues of versatility and who the suppliers are.(Generating Sets)
July 1, 2007... THE TOTAL WORLD consumption of diesel- and natural gas-powered generating sets has been estimated at around 400,000 units, worth approximately US$7 to US$8bn. Sets above 1,000 kVA have experienced considerable growth from 2000 onwards with...

Aggreko provides an additional 30MW of power to Gabon.
July 1, 2007... AGGREKO PLC, HAS once again partnered with Societe d'Energie et d'Eau du Gabon (SEEG) and supplied an additional 30MW of power to supplement the utility grid. The additional power was installed across two sites, Bellevue and Owendo, in...

Spectacular growth of Green Energy market.
July 1, 2007... THE GREEN ENERGY SECTOR has already become a multi-billion dollar industry, with very high growth potential which is attracting record investment. Over the last few years, eco-industries in Europe have grown to such an extent that they have...

Sudan's oil sector comes of age: Moin Siddiqi provides an update on what is now SSA's third-largest oil producer. Asian majors are the key investors with Sudapet in Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co, the number-one producer.(Oil Industry)
July 1, 2007... GEOLOGICALLY SUDAN, AFRICA'S largest country (the size of Western Europe) is a vastly 'under-explored' province. The possibility of further hydrocarbons discoveries makes this country an attractive proposition for energy companies seeking new...

Better storage could combat shortages: water shortage is now a global problem and Africa has less storage capacity than anywhere else. We look at what can be done about a global problem.(Water Supply)
July 1, 2007... As WELL AS being the most under-irrigated region on earth Africa has fewer water storage facilities than anywhere else. Ghana is the only country that has adequate reservoir capacity today; a dozen others (most seriously Egypt and Mozambique)...

Dealership for DRC mining sector.(Construction News)
July 1, 2007... SOUTHERN AFRICAN CATERPILLAR dealer Barloworld Equipment has partnered with its counterpart in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tractafric Equipment, to service the earthmoving equipment needs of the DRC's copper and cobalt rich...

Business flourishes at RESALE 2007.(Construction News)
July 1, 2007... THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL Trade Fair for Used Machinery and Equipment was held at Karlsruhe, Germany from 18-20 April 2007. An optimistic mood surrounded the 528 exhibitors and the event surpassed last year's attendance with 10,009 visitors from...

Dates fixed for World of Asphalt 2009.(Construction News)
July 1, 2007... THE NEXT WORLD of Asphalt Show and Conference will feature the co-location of the inaugural World of Aggregates Forum & Expo (WAGG), with the two events to be held 9-12 March 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The co-location is the result of...

Demand cements business prospects: Humphrey Nkonde reports on the boom in cement marketing throughout the SADC region. It's not just stadium construction in South Africa that is attracting new developments in Lusaka and Ndola.(Construction)
July 1, 2007... THE INCREASED NUMBER of construction projects in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has swelled the demand for cement. In terms of cross-border infrastructure development the SADC region seems to be championing one of the...

Volvo CE sees Q1 sales rise 13 per cent.(Construction)(Financial report)
July 1, 2007... VOLVO CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT continues to perform well, reporting a sales increase of 13 per cent in its first financial quarter 2007 while operating income rose eight points. Net sales in the first quarter amounted to SEK 11,002 M (SEK 9,738...

Surface equipment steals the show: although much of the surface mining equipment on show at bauma 2007 had been previously announced, and some mentioned previously in this column, a few big news items had an element of surprise. Kyran Casteel reports.(Mining)(Column)
July 1, 2007... MORE WAS THE keyword at bauma 2007, the 28th international trade fair for machinery and equipment for the building and construction, building-materials and mining industries. The total number of exhibitors, 3041, was seven per cent more than...

Automotive sector drives demand for platinum: exchange traded funds are expected to boost the price of platinum in the short term. Priscilla Ross looks at this and other circumstances surrounding a widely-used metal vital to the economies of southern Africa.(Mining)
July 1, 2007... PLATINUM IS EXPECTED to trade between U$1200 and US$1400/oz in the next six months. The launch of platinum exchange traded funds (ETFs) will potentially provide upward pressure on the price. However if funds become bearish towards commodities...