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Thursday, October 9, 2008.

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

Making headlines today:

State-owned power utility Eskom on Wednesday said it had received some promising bids in a tender to return its Ingagane power station to service.

Eskom asset disposal manager Mark Hunter told Engineering News Online that the utility got some good offers. But, there is still a lot of work that needed to go into that. He said Eskom needed to manage through aspects like the pricing agreements, and environmental impact assessments.

He added that Eskom was still in an evaluation process and that the tender would probably only be awarded in another month or two. Eskom had received eight bids.

South Africa's factory output growth slowed to 0,4% year-on-year in August and shrank 2,1% on a monthly basis, pointing to pressure from higher interest rates and waning confidence.

Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday that annualised growth eased from an upwardly revised 3,5% in July.

Analysts said the data confirmed that the economy was under strain from past interest rate hikes that were designed to tame inflation, despite a weaker currency.

To the Point Investments director Bernard Swanepoel said on Wednesday that a revitalised JSE-listed Village Main Reef Mining would be "open for business" by January.

He said he was certain that Village would have real assets, and not environmental liabilities, in a year.

To the Point bought Harmony Gold's stake in Village in July. It was a listed JSE shell first incorporated in 1889. To the Point also bought a 10% stake from longstanding shareholder David Cobbet, who still holds a 13% interest in the company. The company then made a 100c a share offer to minorities, also in July.

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Also making headlines:

Kgalema Motlanthe's first South-South summit takes place amid the Northern financial storm.
Some OPEC members float the idea of an oil supply cut.
Trevor Manuel says South Africa must stick to its policies amid the global turmoil.
Diamond-miner Rockwell is on track to commission a new R60-million diamond plant.
Solar energy will become a 'robust' driver of silver demand.
And, De Beers' Voorspoed mine is to open on November 4th.

In political news:

The stakes are high for South African land reform practices.
The World Bank chief says that developing nations face tough times.
Russia starts its troop pullback from Georgia.
And, Barack Obama and John McCain battle it out in a tense debate.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit engineeringnews.co.za, miningweekly.com and polity.org.za