Irma Venter

https://staging1.creamermedia.com/

Irma Venter

Irma Venter is a Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor for Engineering News and Mining Weekly.

Jaguar Land Rover develops portable charger using second-life batteries

19th April 2024 Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has developed a portable battery energy storage system (Bess) using second-life Range Rover and Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) batteries. The unit, built in collaboration with energy storage startup Allye Energy, is the first Bess to be... →

Conditions challenging, but some green shoots emerging – MBA North

19th April 2024 Last year was one of the most challenging years the Master Builders Association (MBA) North has ever experienced, with many of its long-standing members entering business rescue or closing their doors, says MBA North executive director Mohau Mphomela. The 120-year-old employers’ body serves the... →

New-vehicle sales plummet 11.7% in March, extending months-long slide

19th April 2024 New-vehicle sales plummeted by 11.7% in March, to 44 237 units, compared with the same month last year. Sales for the first quarter of the year are now 5.3% below the same period last year. →

Record R12.1bn set aside for infrastructure in Cape Town’s R76.4bn budget for 2024/25

19th April 2024 Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has tabled a R76.4-billion draft budget for the city for the 2024/25 financial year. The budget proposes record infrastructure investment of R12.1-billion for the year, and nearly R40-billion over the next three years. →

Metair reassures market amid huge debt, challenges at Türkiye battery business

19th April 2024 Metair is still very much open for business and the group is able to accommodate new clients should they need automotive components or energy storage solutions, says new CEO Paul O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty, now two months into the job after former CEO Sjoerd Douwenga bowed out, owing to health... →

GAC Motor joins inflow from China

19th April 2024 China’s GAC Motor has appointed Salvador Caetano Auto as the distributor and retailer of GAC vehicles, spare parts and related services in South Africa (SA). GAC Motor is a subsidiary of the State-owned GAC Group, and was founded in 1997. The brand joins a rapidly growing number of Chinese... →

Electric trucks too expensive? Now you can rent one from Volvo Trucks SA

18th April 2024 Volvo Trucks South Africa (SA) has introduced an equipment-as-a-service (EaaS) model for its new electric truck rentals business. Following last year’s launch of Volvo electric trucks in South Africa, the company has been importing a range of configurations to suit local conditions. →

Electric Volvo trucks available to rent

VW Africa laments power outages in ECape; Patel says Electricity Minister is tackling the problem

17th April 2024 Volkswagen Group Africa (VWA) last week suffered four power outages at its Kariega plant, says VWA MD and chairperson Martina Biene. This happened while there was no loadshedding scheduled for the Eastern Cape. →

Volkswagen to invest R4bn to produce third model at Kariega plant

16th April 2024 Volkswagen Group Africa (VWA) will invest R4-billion in its manufacturing plant in Kariega, in the Eastern Cape. The investment will be used to prepare the plant for the addition of a third model to the company’s production line-up from early 2027. →

VWA chairperson and MD Martina Biene

Millennials, Gen-Zs want cars, but are struggling to afford them – WesBank

15th April 2024 Young South Africans, aged 35 and younger, are demonstrating a growing preference for private mobility. This is evident in recent WesBank data that shows a consistent increase over the past three years in the number of vehicle finance applications for new and pre-owned cars by Millennials and... →

Jaecoo launches its first cars in South Africa

15th April 2024 China’s Jaecoo brand has launched its first vehicle in South Africa – the J7 sports-utility vehicle (SUV). Chery/Omoda & Jaecoo South Africa (SA) says the “urban off-road SUV brand” is “poised to take the local market by storm”, with the three J7 derivatives “priced from just R549 900”. →

The Jaecoo J7

Cape Town to tighten procurement process in effort to combat extortion

12th April 2024 The City of Cape Town (CoCT) says the yearly review of its Supply Chain Management Policy proposes additional measures to reduce the risk of extortion impacting city projects. The proposed Supply Chain Management Policy Amendments are out for public comment until May 10. →

Suzuki breaks through the 50 000-unit sales mark

12th April 2024 Suzuki Auto South Africa (Suzuki SA) has broken through the 50 000-units-a-year sales barrier for the first time in its history. The year in question is the company’s financial year, running from April, 2023, to March, 2024. →

Cape Town to depoly camera-fitted aircraft in war against crime

12th April 2024 The City of Cape Towns’ (CoCT’s) Safety and Security Directorate is enhancing its crime prevention capabilities with the inclusion of new aerial surveillance technology. The information, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) technology will take information gathering “to the next level” in the... →

Cape Town’s MyCiTi depot construction 65% complete

12th April 2024 The City of Cape Town (CoCT) says construction work on two new MyCiTi depots, located on the corner of Spine Road and Mew Way between Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, is now 65% complete. City officials add that the bus transit project is on track to be concluded by May next year. Construction... →

Toyota, Ford and VW shine in AutoTrader report

12th April 2024 In 2023, Toyota took top position as South Africa’s most sold used-car brand, with 60 296 units changing hands, while the Ford Ranger reigned supreme as the country's most sold model, at 20 156 units. This is according to the 2023 AutoTrader Car Industry Report, released this week. →

Toyota adds Hilux, Fortuner hybrids to its local production line-up

12th April 2024 Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has added the Hilux double-cab and Fortuner 48 V mild hybrids to its local production line-up at its Durban plant, in KwaZulu-Natal. The addition of the new models brings Toyota’s local hybrid production tally to three, adding to the existing Corolla Cross hybrid... →

WeBuyCars lists on the JSE

11th April 2024 Preowned-vehicle sales specialist WeBuyCars on Thursday listed on the main board of the JSE under the share code WBC. The listing follows WeBuyCars’ unbundling from Transaction Capital, which also owns the struggling SA Taxi. →

Cape Town takes second stab at rolling out electric buses for its MyCiTi service

10th April 2024 The City of Cape Town should have battery electric buses (e-buses) operational on its MyCiTi bus service by 2027, says Urban Mobility MMC Rob Quintas. It will be the city’s second stab at rolling out the zero-emission technology, following an unsuccessful attempt as an early adopter in 2018. →

Zero Carbon Charge says it will build 120 off-grid e-truck charging sites

9th April 2024 Electric vehicle charging startup, Zero Carbon Charge, has launched a new subsidiary, Zero Carbon Logistics, which it says will roll out 120 off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) electric truck charging sites on national highways across South Africa. According to Zero Carbon Charge, the project will... →

Shoprite, four global retailers form $125m venture fund aimed at innovation

9th April 2024 Five grocery retailers, including South Africa’s Shoprite group, have established a venture fund called W23 Global. W23 Global brings together Ahold Delhaize (US, Europe, Indonesia), Tesco (UK, Europe), Woolworths Group (Australia, New Zealand), Empire Company/Sobeys (Canada) and Shoprite Group... →

Pieter Engelbrecht

Reforms to cut red tape starting to bear fruit – Ramaphosa

5th April 2024 President Cyril Ramaphosa believes that government’s efforts to cut the red tape holding back infrastructure development are beginning to bearing fruit. Delivering the keynote address at Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa 2024, held in Cape Town in March, he said that... →

Govt turns to private sector to fix public facilities

5th April 2024 Given the current economic downturn, government does not have the resources to look after all its assets, says Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) property management trading entity head Siza Sibande. “Hence, we want to partner with the private sector to improve public facilities.” →

Infrastructure SA names 12 projects it will unlock in 2024/25

5th April 2024 Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) unveiled 12 “infrastructure projects for preparation” for the 2024/25 financial year at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa 2024 event in Cape Town, held in March. These priority projects all face one or more obstacles in becoming a... →

Infrastructure SA gets R600m boost from Treasury for project preparation

5th April 2024 The National Treasury has allocated Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) a budget of R600-million over three years to “prepare projects”, says ISA head Mameetse Masemola. Addressing a media conference at Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (Sidssa) 2024, held in Cape Town... →

DP World wins big as bpSA outsources its secondary transport ops

4th April 2024 DP World will take over bp Southern Africa’s (bpSA’s) Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Rustenburg logistics operations as the energy group has opted to outsource its secondary transport. In another deal, Makwande Supply & Distribution – a beneficiary of bpSA’s enterprise development... →

Taelo Mojapelo

PRASA restores five more rail corridors partially

4th April 2024 The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) says it has restored another five Metrorail corridors across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. These rail services were interrupted by Covid-19, vandalism, crime and poor maintenance practices under previous management teams. →

New-vehicle sales plummet 11.7% in March

3rd April 2024 New-vehicle sales plummeted by 11.7% in March, to 44 235 units, compared with the same month last year. Sales for the first quarter of the year are now 5.3% below the same period last year. →

New online portal launched to aid Cape Town’s solar PV boom

29th March 2024 The City of Cape Town has launched a new online application portal for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. More than 5 000 solar PV systems have been authorised to date, totalling 126 MVA, with monthly applications to the city tripling between 2021 and 2023. →

Varsity, private firm in partnership to develop protocol for production of radiopharmaceuticals

29th March 2024 Stellenbosch University (SU) and high-tech company Enlightened Isotopes, a subsidiary of ASP Isotopes, have entered into an R8.5-million research partnership to develop a protocol for the separation of the ytterbium-176 isotope, to be used as a radiopharmaceutical in cancer therapy. Worldwide,... →

Toyota launches expanded accessories programme in SA

29th March 2024 Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has launched a new programme called Associated Accessory Products (AAP). The local arm of the Japanese carmaker says this one-stop-shop offering will complement its existing array of accessories, enabling customers to customise their vehicles as they wish. →

Ctrack transport, freight index shows deterioration in all but one of six sectors tracked

29th March 2024 After increasing somewhat in December, the Ctrack Transport and Freight Index (TFI) declined notably in January to a level of 119.3 – a drop of 2.1%, compared with December’s 121.9. The extent of the weakness is almost similar to the pressure the sector experienced during the KwaZulu-Natal... →

Cape Town tables R76.4bn budget; infrastructure spending at R12.1bn

28th March 2024 Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has tabled a R76.4-billion draft budget for the city for the 2024/25 financial year. The budget proposes record infrastructure investment of R12.1-billion for the year, and nearly R40-billion over the next three years. →

City of Cape Town CFO Kevin Jacoby, Finance MMC Siseko Mbandezi, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and city manager Lungelo Mbandazayo

Metair to tackle high debt, gauge Mutlu’s future

27th March 2024 Metair is still very much open for business and the group is able to accommodate new clients should they need automotive components or energy solutions, says new CEO Paul O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty, now two months into the job after former CEO Sjoerd Douwenga bowed out owing to health reasons, comes... →

Paul O’Flaherty

China’s LDV launches in the local bakkie, commercial vehicle market

26th March 2024 LDV is the latest automotive brand from China to enter South Africa, with the Asian country seemingly intensifying its efforts to become the world’s new automotive powerhouse. LDV forms part of SAIC, which is the vehicle partner to General Motors and Volkswagen in China. It is also the... →

The T60 bakkie

GAC Motor joins inflow from China; Ramsoomar appointed as MD

25th March 2024 China’s GAC Motor has appointed Salvador Caetano Auto as the distributor and retailer of GAC vehicles, spare parts and related services in South Africa (SA). GAC Motor is a subsidiary of the State-owned GAC Group, and was founded in 1997. The brand joins a rapidly growing number of Chinese... →

Leslie Ramsoomar

Toyota adds Hilux, Fortuner hybrids to its local production line-up

22nd March 2024 Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has added the Hilux double-cab and Fortuner 48 V mild hybrids to its local production line-up at its Durban plant in KwaZulu-Natal. The addition of the new models brings Toyota’s local hybrid production tally to three, adding to the existing Corolla Cross hybrid... →

The Hilux 48 V mild hybrid

BW8 last under IRP 2019, nuclear ambitions not a pipe dream – Mantashe

22nd March 2024 Bid Window 8 of government’s Renewable Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme will be the last bid window under the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2019, says Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe. “We’ll then have issued all the bid windows provided for under IRP 2019.” →

Grindrod to spend big at Maputo’s Matola drybulk terminal to grow capacity

22nd March 2024 Ports and logistics group Grindrod is set to invest big in its Matola drybulk terminal in Mozambique. Announcing Grindrod’s financial results for the year ended December 31 earlier this month, CEO Xolani Mbambo said the JSE-listed logistics group would spend the bulk of its R2.5-billion capital... →

‘It’s not all doom and gloom in our space’ – WBHO boss

22nd March 2024 With a total pipeline of work of R240-billion, up from R211-billion in June, Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon’s (WBHO’s) short- to medium-term future “should be okay”, says CEO Wolfgang Neff. “It’s not all doom and gloom in our space. I think it looks pretty good. Our earnings are at their best levels... →

Cape Town completes R2bn Zandvliet Waste Water Treatment Works upgrade

20th March 2024 The upgraded Zandvliet Waste Water Treatment Works has been handed over by the contractor to Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. Contractors in the city are not named to protect them from extortion attempts by the so-called construction mafia. →

The Zandvliet Waste Water Treatment Works

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