Новости за 23.04.2021

Finance institution the European Investment Bank (EIB) says it provided €5-billion for new private and public investment across Africa during 2020. This represented the largest yearly EIB engagement in 55 years of operations on the continent and the largest support for climate action and investment in fragile states, it points out.

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has welcomed the 25 Cuban engineers who have been seconded to help South Africa improve the delivery of water and related services, to South Africa. The engineers will support the South African government in this regard for three years.

Email security and cyber-resilience company Mimecast's '2021 State of Email Security' report showed that 47% of South African companies surveyed were infected by ransomware during 2020 and that 48% of South African organisations reported significant increases in the volume of email, but 12% still don't have any email security in place. Phishing attacks surged by 57% since the pandemic began.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Nasa) has announced that its Ingenuity drone helicopter made a successful second flight on Mars on Thursday. This flight, although still brief, significantly expanded the machine’s flight envelope. The little helicopter and its control algorithms were developed by a dedicated team at Nasa’s famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in California.  Ingenuity is a 49 cm high, 1.8 kg mass, solar energy-powered technology demonstrator, fitted with contra-rotating rotors. Читать дальше...

Industrial plants and systems engineering company Thyssenkrupp has been awarded the contract to deliver a 20 MW green hydrogen plant for the production of green ammonia at the Donaldsonville manufacturing complex, in Louisiana, for US agricultural fertiliser company CF Industries. Thyssenkrupp will engineer and deliver the 20 MW hydrogen production unit based on its alkaline water electrolysis, as well as all necessary utilities.

Energy generation and desalination company Acwa Power has secured a $114-million financing package for the construction of the largest private solar power plant in Egypt. The Kom Ombo plant will contribute to the Egyptian government’s target to generate 42% of the country’s electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035, while delivering one of the lowest generation tariffs on the continent.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has released, for public comment, an amendment to the Electricity Regulation Act, proposing an increase in the licensing-exemption threshold for embedded power generation plants from 1 MW to 10 MW. The Gazette notice, which was published on April 23, follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s February State of the Nation announcement that Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act would be amended to increase the licensing threshold for embedded generators.

Lobby organisation AfriForum has sent a letter to the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), expressing its opposition to the use of facial recognition software that it says will violate citizens' constitutional right to privacy, and which may form part of the proposed broader use of machine learning technology that is being investigated to improve road safety. AfriForum questions whether Sanral is able to successfully implement such a project and how Sanral plans on preventing the possible abuse of machine learning technology.

South African prosecutors said they are seeking the extradition of a British national who’s been implicated in a fraudulent deal with the state power company. Michael Lomas appeared in the Westminister Magistrates Court on Thursday, was granted bail of £100 000 and submitted additional surety of £250 000 pounds, the National Prosecuting Authority’s investigating directorate said in an emailed statement. He’s due to return to court on May 20.

Volvo Cars has implemented a new all-gender, paid parental leave policy as of April 1. The Family Bond policy will give all employees with at least one year’s service a total of 24 weeks of leave at 80% of their base pay, by default, and will apply to Volvo Cars’ 40 000-plus employees in all plants and offices around the globe.

JSE-listed Growthpoint Properties has concluded a deal with book publisher Penguin Random House to consolidate and relocate the publisher’s offices and distribution centre to 3 657 m2 of upgraded business space at Growthpoint Business Park in Midrand, Gauteng. Penguin Random House is a longstanding Growthpoint tenant.

Constrained global financial conditions caused by Covid-19 have led to massive portfolio outflows from Africa, exceeding $5-billion in the first quarter of 2020, a new continent-wide survey on trade finance has shown. About $3.1-billion left the South African market alone, the report found.

From its beginnings in South Africa on the April 1, 1921, engineering consulting firm Knight Piésold has established and grown its local operations within Southern Africa, through its offices in Namibia, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Madagascar, Swaziland, Mauritius and South Africa. Speaking at the company’s centenary celebrations held in Sandton, this week, Knight Pièsold Southern Africa regional manager Vishal Haripersad explained that operations across Africa were staffed... Читать дальше...

South African petroleum products group Engen announced on Friday that it would shut the Engen Refinery and convert the site, located south of Durban, into an import terminal and product storage facility by the end of 2023. Engen said the refinery-to-terminal (RTT) repurposing initiative was based on a strategic evaluation, which confirmed the refinery was no longer financially viable and determined that the investments required to upgrade it in line with evolving fuel quality and emissions regulations would be unaffordable.

Western Cape-based Stellenbosch University (SU) has established a new School for Climate Studies, which will be officially launched in June, as part of its efforts to tackle the battle against climate change. According to SU research, innovation and postgraduate studies deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Eugene Cloete, this is the first school of its kind in South Africa that has the status of a faculty.

JSE-listed real estate investment trust Emira Property Fund has received notice that, Maitlantic 10 and Clearance Cantara Master Fund (the offerors) have acquired a combined 35% of Emira’s shares. As such, the offerors will launch a mandatory offer to acquire all the Emira shares not already held by them, their holding companies or their holding companies’ other subsidiaries, for an offer consideration of R9.15 per Emira ordinary share.

Following a second round of talks, wage negotiations between State-owned freight logistics group Transnet and its affiliated labour unions have reached a deadlock. The negotiations took place with the South African Transport and Allied Union (Satawu) and the United National Transport Union (Untu) on behalf of the bargaining unit employees, under the Transnet Bargaining Council (TBC).

Imperial has entered into an agreement with the Afropulse, Willowton and Converting Trade groups which will give them the opportunity to participate in a 25% empowerment shareholding scheme in Imperial Logistics Group South Africa (ILSA). Subsequent to the transaction, ILSA will house a significant majority of the Imperial group’s South African operations.

Information technology services company EOH on April 23 clarified that it had entered into an acknowledgement of debt (AoD) with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) at the end of September 2020 and that it had started monthly payments in terms of the AoD from October 5, 2020. It also highlighted that the forensic investigation undertaken by law firm ENSafrica had transparently and proactively reported to the authorities, including the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (DPCI), the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC)... Читать дальше...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about concerns raised about the architecture of the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) and the powership projects that have been selected as preferred bidders under the RMIPPPP.

Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu announced that Cabinet has approved the Public Service Amendment Bill and the Public Administration Management Amendment Bill for public comment, as he provided an update on the current public service wage negotiations. Mchunu welcomed the negotiations currently underway by the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council, between government and unions in the public service space.

Rand Water has settled the RW21 bond that was issued ten years ago under its JSE-listed R10-billion Domestic Medium Term Note Programme. The settlement of the bond demonstrated the financial viability of Rand Water, the agency said in a statement.

World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 169.2-million tonnes in March, marking a 15.2% increase year-on-year. Global crude steel production for the first three months of 2021 was 486.9-million tonnes, representing a 10% year-on-year increase. While Asia and Oceania produced 356.9-million tonnes of crude steel in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 13.2% compared with the first quarter of 2020; the European Union produced ...

A video round up of this week’s magazine, highlighting our cover story, features and Business Leader.

Although air transport accounts for only 2% of human-produced carbon dioxide, the aerospace industry is not complacent. In October 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) adopted the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia), which aims to cut 2005 levels of aviation carbon emissions by 50% by 2050. Corsia is an initiative for States, but the international industry initiative, the Air Transport Action Group, has endorsed the objectives of Corsia. Читать дальше...