Новости за 17.02.2021

South Africa’s budget, which is to be presented in parliament on February 24, is unlikely to result in the introduction of a wealth tax or any other significant tax increases. Rather, it is more likely that the National Treasury will take steps to ensure tax enforcement and collection, says professional services network EY.

Insurance multinational Chubb has launched its Civil Engineering Completed Risks (CECR) insurance offering in the South African market. The CECR is aimed at medium-sized and large organisations operating in all areas of infrastructure.

African equity capital market (ECM) activity had been the lowest in the last decade in 2020, recording a significant decline in both volume and value, PwC notes in its latest edition of the 'Africa Capital Markets Watch' publication. African ECM recorded a value decline of 2% and a volume decline of 23% in 2020.

Irish aviation group ASL Aviation Holdings (ASL), with which South African air cargo and humanitarian operations company Safair is associated, has announced that it is taking up the ten options that it took out in mid-2019 for Boeing 737-800BCF cargo aircraft. BCF stands for Boeing Converted Freighter and indicates that the aircraft were originally built as airliners and not built from scratch as freighters. At the Paris Air Show in June 2019 ASL ordered ten 737-800BCFs and took the now exercised options on ten more. Читать дальше...

Brazilian aerospace group Embraer has reported that it delivered nearly 35% fewer civilian jets last year than the year before. During 2020, the company delivered 130 such jets, as against the 198 delivered during 2019. During the last quarter of last year, it delivered 71 jets, which was ten fewer than the number delivered in the last quarter of 2019. However, the group had a firm order backlog worth $14.4-billion. In the civil jet sector, Embraer produces both commercial jets with up to 150 seats... Читать дальше...

Development organisation Food & Trees for Africa and carbon and climate change adviser Promethium Carbon on February 17 introduced the new Inclusive Carbon Standard that they are developing.   Food & Trees for Africa executive director Chris Wild explained that the new carbon standard idea came about through learnings from one of the organisation’s flagship programmes, its Trees for Homes Programme.

Nongovernmental organisation Greenpeace Africa has called on Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy to revise the weakening of the minimum emission standards (MES) to avoid further air pollution. The organisation has also requested the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) to disclose the circumstances around the emission of high levels of sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution, as was seen in Johannesburg and Pretoria this past week.

Diversified real estate investment trust (Reit) Emira’s headline earnings a share decreased by 6.1% to 80.12c for the six months ended December 31, 2020. Earnings a share decreased by 100.6% to 0.46c for the period.

The Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) has warned that 86%, or 95 out of 111, of global publicly listed firms surveyed in heavy industries have failed to prepare for the “transition decade”. Research done by the initiative points to an $856-billion climate risk, which is the combined market cap of the 95 companies, for failing to align with a pathway to keeping the earth’s temperature rise below 2 ˚C above pre-industrial era levels.

JSE-listed paper and packaging manufacturer Sappi says it has made progress in the development of its biorefinery capacity. The company confirmed in a release on February 17 that it will build a pilot plant using technology developed in-house to prove the feasibility of a future commercial furfural plant.

The ferrochrome business of diversified mining and marketing company Glencore, which uses a substantial amount of electricity, is evaluating various clean energy projects, Glencore ferroalloys head Japie Fullard said during this week’s Glencore a media conference. The media conference followed this week’s presentation of results, where Glencore displayed a slide projecting a 30% increase in its ferrochrome production in 2021, up from the 1 029 000 t of ferrochrome produced in 2020, to the 1 400 000 t expected this year.

Primary steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) on February 17 reported that there had been an incident at its Vanderbijlpark Works facility, which resulted in three employees going missing. The company explained that a portion of a 90 m stack at one of the operation’s coke batteries failed in the early hours of February 17 and fell onto the coke battery control room, in which the three employees were working.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize have received two of the country’s first ever Covid-19 vaccine shots from the Johnson & Johnson consignment, which arrived in the country on Tuesday evening. Ramaphosa and Mkhize were vaccinated alongside health workers at the Khayelitsha District Hospital, in the Western Cape. The first South African health worker to receive the vaccine was nurse Zoliswa Gidi-Dyosi. Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to take the vaccine to ensure... Читать дальше...

The South African Human Rights Commission warns that the Vaal river, "Gauteng's most vital water resource", may have been irreparably damaged and recommends that the Emfuleni municipality be placed under administration and that public servants, municipal administrators and staff who failed to comply with their obligations be disciplined or dismissed.. The SAHRC confirmed on February 17 that sewage pollution in the Vaal river was negatively impacting on human rights and that existing regulatory and... Читать дальше...

Pan African network operator Paratus and broadband solutions and backbone infrastructure provider Telecom Namibia have signed an agreement to land the subsea cable, Equiano, in Namibia. Google’s subsea cable project, announced in 2019, will connect Africa with Europe, running along the west coast of Africa, between Portugal and South Africa and incorporating new technology that enables 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve this region.

The export of South African coal to China is poised to continue while China decides not to buy Australian coal, Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said during this week’s Glencore media conference. “China still imports round about 185-million tons to 190-million tons of seaborne coal. They like to import the better quality coals, and therefore to substitute the Australian better quality coal. Indonesia and Russia do supply them, but they need other sources of supply once Australia is out of the market,” Glasenberg said in response to Mining Weekly. Читать дальше...

Democratic Republic of Congo's ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, Jean Le'on Ngandu Ilunga has hinted that construction on the Inga 3 hydro-power project could start by the end of the year. "We believe in the coming month we will see concrete steps towards implementation. Towards the end of this year, some concrete steps will be seen on the ground," he said in response to a question by News24 during an online seminar organised by the Institute for Security Studies.

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about Eskom's plans for repowering and repurposing the Komati power station and others in its coal-fired fleet, as well as the power utility's focus on ensuring the transition to renewables is just.

The Energy Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa (EIUG) has noted "with disappointment" the Eskom price increase announced on February 16. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has agreed to the State-owned power utility increasing its tariff by 15.6% for the 2021/22 financial year.

The second wave of Covid-19 infections and the return to a more stringent lockdown in December 2020 caused a setback in trade conditions during the holiday period, which spilled over into January, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (Sacci's) Trade Activity Index (TAI) shows. The TAI declined to 39 in December 2020 and further to 34 in January, from 47 in November 2020.

Trade union Solidarity and civil rights group AfriForum have announced that they will proceed with litigation against the Tourism Equity Fund (TEF) after having unfruitful talks with the Ministry. Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane suspended the TEF’s activities on February 5 until discussions could be held with the organisations.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize will be vaccinated at the Khayelitsha District Hospital, in the Western Cape, on Wednesday, following the late-night arrival of 800 000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines on Tuesday. Ramaphosa said in statement that he and Mkhize will join health workers in Khayelitsha in taking the vaccine to show government’s confidence in the vaccine and to allay fears from the general public.

South African private-sector regional airline Airlink has announced that it has had to further suspend its route between Johannesburg in South Africa and Nosy Be in Madagascar. The new suspension will be in force until June 27 this year. Nosy Be is a destination which has been growing in popularity with South African tourists. It can still provide a ‘non-commercialised’ beach and adventure holiday experience, including excellent scuba-diving, snorkeling, sports fishing and kayaking, as well as unique flora and fauna.

JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms expects a more than 20% increase in earnings for the six months ended November 30. The group’s basic earnings a share are set to increase 41% to 45% year-on-year to a range between 49.23c and 50.62c apiece for the first six months of the year.

Mpumalanga mine water public-private organisation the Mine Water Coordinating Body (MWCB) hopes its new partnership with socioeconomic development collaboration company The Impact Catalyst will provide a collaborative platform for the collective, integrated and sustainable mine water management in the Upper Olifants River basin, says MWCB programme manager Carla Hudson. MWCB will work with The Impact Catalyst to empower local communities in Mpumalanga, as the MWCB consortium works to address mine... Читать дальше...