Manufacturing contracts for 8th straight month, but mining sees surprise jump

  Mar 12 2020 14:43 Londiwe Buthelezi Manufacturing production in South Africa decreased for the eighth consecutive in January 2020 as sectors such motoring, wood and as chemicals producers extended declines that they’ve registered in the past few months. Production fell by 2% in January, which was, however, better than the 5.9% contraction recorded in December, when Eskom implemented unprecedented stage 6 load shedding. Nine out of 10 manufacturing divisions in the country experienced a drop in activity, said Statistics SA’s director of industry statistics, Nicolai Claassen. Wood, paper, publishing and…

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Turning challenges in the steel sector into opportunities

Despite the local steel sector currently experiencing tough challenges, some businesses within the steel supply chain have seized the opportunities presented by these challenges to grow their success. One such business is NitraLife, a local pioneer in the manufacture and supply of nitrogen generation equipment since 1996. Of note is that the company supplies various parts of the steel sector supply chain in South Africa with their NitraCut and NitraSpray nitrogen generators, while also manufacturing the generators from local steel components. “We have worked hard to become independent and robust…

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Stefanutti Stocks Ghana successfully completes AME Project at Newmont’s Ahafo Mine

Stefanutti Stocks Ghana, a subsidiary of Stefanutti Stocks (Pty) Ltd – an industry stalwart and South Africa’s foremost listed construction group – has added another successful African project to its track record, with the completion of a major plant expansion project for mining client Newmont Gold Ghana. The project achieved commercial production on schedule and within budget in October 2019. Ahafo mine, located in the Brong-Ahafo region of central Ghana, is one of the largest gold mines in the Republic of Ghana and in the world. The project objective was…

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New boss for South African Mint

The South African Mint Company, a subsidiary of the SA Reserve Bank, has announced the appointment of Honey Mamabolo as its new managing director Director. The central bank said Mamabolo’s background as an engineer, together with her experience in finance and manufacturing, makes her an ideal fit for the role. She has 20 years’ experience across various industry sectors, including mining, retail banking, energy, development finance and manufacturing. Before joining the South African Mint, Ms Mamabolo was the Chief Executive Officer of Thebe Unico, a leading manufacturer and supplier of…

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AI poised to make customers more powerful than bank

Increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is likely to see the banking industry moving towards an environment where the customer owns their data and can easily move between banks or other financial organisations with their historical financial information. Prema Varadhan, chief architect and head of AI at Temenos, says this is a long-term aspiration that traditional banks may struggle to attain in the medium term. However, the first step was taken with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe in 2018.…

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Summer crops: SA farmers set for a good year

  South African summer crop farmers are expecting a bigger harvest this year. This is despite the 2019/20 production season starting on a negative footing with delayed rainfall across the country. Summer crops include white maize, yellow maize, sunflowers and soybeans. Preliminary planting data from the National Crop Estimate Committee (CEC) shows 2019/20 summer crop area at 3.97 million hectares. Read: South Africa’s maize planting area seen up 9% on good rains South Africa’s major summer crop plantings Source: Agbiz Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agriculture Business Chamber (Agbiz), says the recent increase…

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Worley to provide engineering services for Sasol South Africa projects

Australia-based Worley has signed a five-year deal with Group Technology, a division of Sasol South Africa (Pty) Ltd, to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for Sasol’s capital projects portfolio The partnership will focus on efficiency improvement and environmental initiatives, from front-end engineering design to project completion. (Image source: Worley) These include efficiency improvement and environmental initiatives, from front-end engineering design to project completion. Worley’s energy and chemicals services business in South Africa, jointly owned by Worley and Matasis Investments, provides global expertise to help energy, chemicals and power customers…

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Unfit for human consumption’: Canned pilchards products recalled by manufacturer

  The manufacturing company explained that there might be a ‘canning deficiency’ and there is a possibility that some customers might have bought an affected tin. West Point Processors announced on Saturday that customers who bought pilchards in tomato sauce 400g tins recently must be returned for a refund due to the canned product being “unfit for human consumption”. “Because consumer safety is our top priority, we wish to recall some pilchards in tomato sauce products,” the company said in a statement. The manufacturing company explained that there might be…

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Beneficiation, manufacturing potential big job creators

JOHANNESBURG – African Quartz executive chairperson Dr Dennis George welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, to speedily and radically increase generation capacity outside of Eskom. The President said a Section 34 Ministerial Determination will be issued shortly to give effect to the Integrated Resource Plan 2019. Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act empowers the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy to allow municipalities to purchase power outside of the national grid. Such a determination will enable the development of additional grid capacity from other sources and…

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Egypt develops comprehensive strategy for manufacturing cars

The government has developed a comprehensive strategy for the automobile and electric cars industry, said Egyptian Minister of Military Production Mohamed al-Assar on Sunday. He added that the plan is currently being formulated and will soon be announced by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with the relevant ministers on Saturday to discuss this strategy, Assar said. This strategy covers multiple dimensions, such as converting cars to work with gas or electricity and replacing cars over 20 years of age with a new electronic model, he said.…

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